Autism rates rise to one in 31 children in the U.S., CDC reports

One in 31 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by their 8th birthday, the CDC reported Tuesday. Is autism an epidemic?

One in 31 children in the United States are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by their 8th birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

The finding, based on an analysis of medical records from 2022, reflects a dramatic rise in autism over the past two decades. Previous CDC reports showed that 1 in 54 8-year-olds had been diagnosed with autism in 2016. In 2000, it was 1 in 150.

“The most striking piece of this is how unbelievably common presentations of autism are,” said Zachary Warren, an author of the new report.

Warren, also the executive director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) in Nashville, Tennessee, largely attributed the increases to improvements in detecting the developmental disorder.

Doctors are better than ever at identifying autism, with awareness at an all-time high. “Without a doubt, we’ve become exceptionally efficient in this surveillance work,” Warren said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/autism-rates-up-cdc-report-2025-rfk-jr-rcna201305

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