The CDC says 2.3% are on the autism spectrum. The data comes from a report published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that looked at data from 2018 on 8-year-old children in 11 communities across the country.
“We can’t say for sure what is behind the increase in prevalence,” said Matt Maenner, an epidemiologist at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities who led the new study. “But it may be due to the way children are identified, diagnosed and served in their communities, as well as continued reductions in racial or socioeconomic disparities.”
These reports are based on data collected in communities in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
