CDC Study Reveals That Autism Rates In American Children Has Risen To 1 In 31
One in 31 children in the United States are being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by their 8th birthday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The finding was based on an analysis of medical records from 2022. In its latest study, published on April 17, 2025, the CDC said the latest figure are up from 1 in 36 (2.8%) in 2020.
ASD rates were lower among white children than among Asian/Pacific islander, black, hispanic and multiracial children, continuing a pattern that first emerged in 2020.
“The 1 in 31 number is a testament to the failure of the medical system as we know it,” said Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense.
Holland added:
“The level of autism among 8-year-olds has been steadily increasing for decades without unbiased, real research into the likely causes. Tens of thousands of parents have come forward in recent decades to say they believe vaccines triggered their children’s autism. Yet mainstream science, media and government regulators have rejected the idea of even examining this observation seriously.”
However, Holland praised efforts by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to study the problem.
“The only good news here is that we finally have a president and HHS secretary truly committed to looking at all the potential causes and stopping this downward trajectory that is putting our nation at risk,” Holland said.
Kennedy announced in a recent Cabinet meeting that the government has launched a “massive testing and research effort” to determine what causes autism. He said the effort involves hundreds of scientists globally and will be completed by September. Once the environmental causes of autism are identified, “We’ll be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy said.
Commenting on the CDC report, Kennedy said: “The autism epidemic has now reached a scale unprecedented in human history because it affects the young. The risks and costs of this crisis are a thousand times more threatening to our country than covid. 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.”
This is beyond an epidemic
The CDC study is based on data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, which has used health and education data since 2000 to track autism rates among 8- and 4-year-olds at multiple sites across the country.
The CDC releases a report on the data every two years. The 2022 data come from 16 sites across the country.
Since the CDC started collecting the data, prevalence estimates have skyrocketed from 1 in 150 in 2000 to today’s estimate of 1 in 31 children.
RFK Jr. Warns Five Toxins in Everyday Goods Are Causing Autism Epidemic
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned that five toxins in everyday goods – mold, pesticides, food chemicals, medicines, and ultrasound scans – may be fuelling a “tsunami” of autism cases across the U.S.
Kennedy stated that autism rates began rising in the 1980s, coinciding with the widespread use of ultrasound scans.
Dailymail.co.uk reports: RFK Jr. went on to suggest industries were profiting off of environmental toxins that are driving more autism diagnoses, an apparent nod to his vaccine skepticism and crusade against artificial food ingredients.
Many scientists and advocates for people with autism have criticized Kennedy’s position as harmful and misleading. Mainstream research describes autism as a complex condition largely shaped by genetics and multiple other contributing factors.
It comes after the CDC reported the number of US children with autism rose to one in 31 in 2022, up from one in 36 in 2020 and one in 56 in 2016.
By comparison, early studies from the 1960s and 70s estimated autism rates to be as low as 1 in 5,000. Most researchers say the trend can likely be attributed to better screening and awareness – but Kennedy said that only accounts for “10 to 20 percent” of cases.
“Doctors and therapists in the past weren’t stupid. They weren’t missing all these cases,” RFK Jr. told an abruptly called press conference.
He also dismissed the idea that autism rates are being fuelled by genetic factors, saying, “genes do not cause epidemics,” adding that “it [the rise in autism] must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors.”
Kennedy told reporters: “We need to move away from the ideology that the relentless autism prevalence increase is simply an artifact of better recognition and better diagnostic criteria.
The epidemic is real. Only a small percentage can be charged to better recognition or better diagnostic criteria.
The answer is very clear and this is catastrophic for our country.”
Kennedy said he would announce a series of studies to identify “precisely what the environmental toxins are” that may be contributing to the rise.
His claim that the surge in autism cases is not due to better screening puts him at odds with the researchers behind the CDC report.
The authors stated that the uptick “might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.”
They also highlighted differences in insurance coverage.
But Kennedy said: “It’s time for everyone to stop attributing this rise to epidemic denial. External factors, environmental exposures, that’s where we’re going to find the answer.”
RFK Jr. promised “we will have some answers by September, there will be an answer for the American people very, very quickly.”
Dr Peter Marks, the FDA’s former top vaccine official, cautioned that the project’s rushed timeline and built-in biases are likely to produce flawed results.
Kennedy has appointed David Geier – who is known for promoting the theory linking vaccines to autism – to lead the initiative.
The CDC report looked at autism rates in 16 monitoring sites across the U.S. to predict the overall figure for the rest of the nation. Researchers focused on four-to-eight-year-old children living in those areas in 2022.
Kids were counted as having autism if they had a diagnosis or were receiving special education for it. Four-year-olds who didn’t have a diagnosis but showed signs of autism were labelled as “suspected” cases.
While the overall rate was one in 31 children in 2022, boys remained at an increased risk. Overall, one in 20 eight-year-old boys were diagnosed with autism in 2022 but in places like California it was as common as one in 13.
RFK Jr called the risk for boys “extreme.” Kennedy also claimed that autism cases were not only becoming more common, but more severe.
He said about one in four autistic children are “profoundly” disabled, meaning they are nonverbal and may be completely dependent on others for basic care.
The secretary said: “Autism destroys families and more importantly destroys our greatest resource, which is children.”
While researchers in the CDC report said improvements in early identification of autism “have been apparent” in recent years and could explain the rise, RFK Jr. estimated as many as 85 percent of cases could instead be linked to environmental exposures.
He said: “We have to recognize we are doing this to our children and we need to put an end to it.”
Research from Harvard, for example, found exposure to air pollution like particulate matter in early childhood may raise the risk of autism by as much as 64 percent.
While in the womb, exposure may raise risk of ASD by 31 percent.
The experts suggested particulate matter breathed in during early childhood or while in the womb may travel through the bloodstream and bypass protective layers in the brain, causing inflammation that hinders nerve development.
An Australian study published earlier this year also found boys exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) in the womb were six times more likely to be diagnosed with autism before age 11 than those without exposure.
That team suggested BPA – which lines plastic and metal food packaging, an ever growing pollutant in the modern world – was associated with neurological and behavioural changes associated with autism.
The US has also seen a surge in the use of synthetic pesticides, which some say could be a contributor, as well. Use of these chemicals increased 50-fold since 1950.
Some research indicates up to 80 percent of Americans have detectable levels of pesticides in their blood.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an emergency suspension of the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA or Dacthal) due to evidence suggesting babies exposed to it in the womb could be born underweight and with a decreased IQ and development.
Dr Walter Zahorodny of Rutgers University in New Jersey, who co-authored the CDC report and joined Kennedy at the press conference, said:
“There is better recognition because there are more children with autism. It’s not better awareness pushing the increase.”
yogaesoteric
April 24, 2025