A total of 2.24% of U.S. children (1 in 45 children) aged 3 to 17 years have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to new statistics released by the 2014 National Health Interview Survey. The new figure is up from 1.25% reported from 2011 to 2013. The prevalence of developmental delay fell to 3.57% from 4.84%, while the rate of intellectual disability remained virtually unchanged at 1.1%.1

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributes the significant jump in autism rates on the new format of the survey, which asked parents about autism before asking them if their child had an “other developmental delay.”1 In other words, the change in the order of the questions in the survey may have influenced parents to more likely report autism.

Regardless of the revised question ordering, the rates of autism have continued to increase dramatically during the past three decades:1

1980’s: 2 3 Two studies (1987 & 1989) found 1 in 2500-3000 U.S. children had autism

2000: 4 American Academy of Neurology and Child Neurology Society estimate 1 in 500 US children had autism.

2003-2004: 5 Study (2006) revealed 1 in 188 U.S. children had autism

2007 6 : CDC states 1 in 150 U.S. children had autism

2009: 7 CDC states 1 in 110 U.S. children had autism

2012: 8 CDC states 1 in 88 U.S. children had autism

2014: 9 CDC states 1 in 68 U.S. children aged eight had autism

Even though in 2014, the CDC “officially” admitted that 1 in 68 US children eight years old were found to have autism, in 2013 a CDC national health survey found that 1 in 50 children between the ages of 6 and 17 were diagnosed with ASD in 2011-2012.10 The authors of that 2013 federal health survey stated that:

The reported prevalence of ASD has increased in recent decades. For example, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) revealed a nearly fourfold increase in parent-reported ASD between the 1997–1999 and 2006–2008 surveillance periods, and CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network revealed a 78% increase in ASD prevalence between 2002 and 2008.

In a comment to The Washington Post on the latest CDC admission that 1 in 45 children in America suffer with autism, Jill Escher of the Autism Society of San Francisco said:

It’s not the year to year numbers that concern us. It’s the decade to decade. The fact that we have 1 in 45 children with a very serious neurological condition is a catastrophe by any measure.11

References: