Children
- In 2018 the CDC determined that approximately 1 in 59 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls. (1 in 37 boys and 1 in 151 girls)
Teens
- Over the next decade, an estimated 500,000 teens (50,000 each year) will enter adulthood and age out of school based autism services
- More than half of young adults with autism remain unemployed and unenrolled in higher education in the two years after high school. This is a lower rate than that of young adults in other disability categories, including learning disabilities, intellectual disability or speech-language impairment.
Adults
- Of the nearly 18,000 people with autism who used state-funded vocational rehabilitation programs in 2014, only 60 percent left the program with a job. Of these, 80 percent worked part-time at a median weekly rate of $160, putting them well below the poverty level.
- Nearly half of 25-year-olds with autism have never held a paying job.
- According to research, jobs that encourage independence reduce autism symptoms and increase daily living skills.
- The cost of caring for autism reached $268 billion in 2015 and would rise to $461 billion by 2025 in the absence of more-effective interventions and support across the life span.
- The majority of autism’s costs in the U.S. are for adult services – an estimated $175 to $196 billion a year, compared to $61 to $66 billion a year for children.