The latest data shows a roughly 17% increase in the autism rate among children in 2022 compared to 2020.
Data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), finds that the national rate is now 32.2 per 1,000 among eight-year-old children, or 1 in 31. Before the new data was released Tuesday, that figure was about 27.6 per 1,000, or 1 in 36 among eight-year-olds in 2020.
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the increased data represented an epidemic among American children and that the increased autism rate was akin to chronic disease.
“The autism epidemic has now reached a scale unprecedented in human history because it affects the young,” RFK Jr. said in an official news release. “The risks and costs of this crisis are a thousand times more threatening to our country [than] COVID-19.
“Autism is preventable, and it is unforgivable that we have not yet identified the underlying causes. We should have had these answers 20 years ago.”
RFK Jr. has previously said that the current pediatric vaccine schedule is malpractice and that it causes autism. Numerous reviews debunk the connection between autism and the use of vaccines. Many factors are tied to the cause of autism, but most have a link to genetics.
Previously, on April 10, RFK Jr. promised in a televised cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump that HHS would be revealing the cause of autism and a plan eliminating the causes by September.
“The autism epidemic is running rampant,” Kennedy said in the release.
The rate of autism in boys in the 2022 cohort was 3.4 times as prevalent among boys, at 49.2 per 1000, compared to 14.3 in girls. It was found less among non-Hispanic white children (27.7 per 1,000) and the most among Asian or Pacific Islander children (38.2).
The new data delivers mixed results on the connection between income and prevalence. There was no association between autism prevalence and neighborhood median household income (MHI) at 11 ADDM surveillance sites. But a higher prevalence rate was associated with lower neighborhood MHI at five sites.
Research in the field of autism and related conditions is wide and varied and inspired, in part, by increases in autism rates. The autism therapy industry has expanded rapidly both in terms of clinical services and as an industry.
