1 in 31 Is Not the Story
The CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network released data showing 1 in 31 eight-year-olds in the United States were identified with autism spectrum disorder in 2022 (n=8,854 of 274,857 children; CDC ADDM Network, April 15, 2025; surveillance year 2022; https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/74/ss/ss7402a1.htm). That's up from 1 in 36 in 2020 (CDC ADDM Network, 2020 surveillance year). I'm one of those numbers. Diagnosed sometime around age three, in 1977 or 1978. Back then it was "plain old garden variety" autism – before the spectrum, before Asperger's got folded in, before the DSM decided we were all one thing with severity specifiers. The prevalence isn't rising because autism is spreading. It's rising because we're finally looking. The six-fold gap Here's what the numbers actually say: prevalence ranged from 1 in 103 in Texas (Laredo; n=47 of 4,856) to 1 in 19 in California (n=807 of 15,212) (CDC ADDM Network, 2022; https:...