ASD is the fastest growing neurobiological condition in the world.8 While the World Health Organization (WHO) does not maintain global statistics on the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders or appropriate treatments specifically, its 2007 Global Burden of Disease report on mental and neurological disorders highlighted the critical situation the world faces with a growing population that includes those with autism. The report demonstrated that traditional epidemiological methods of disease had been greatly underestimating mental and neurological disorders by tracking mortality, not disability rates, which it estimates accounts for almost 11 percent of global disease burden. The study concluded that the proportionate share of the total global burden of disease due to neuropsychiatric disorders is projected to rise to 14.7 percent by 2020.
Following is a chart showing recent incidence rates in selected countries:
Estimated Number of Individuals with Autism in Selected Nations, 2007 (calculated from prevalence rates in some cases)
|
COUNTRY |
NUMBER |
DATA SOURCE |
|
China |
1,100,000 |
Peking Health Science Center (estimate based on official 2005 rate of 1.1 in 1,000 children affected) |
|
India |
2,000,000 |
Action for Autism India (based on an estimated rate of 1 in 250) |
|
United States |
1,500,000 |
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ADDME Study 2007 and Autism Society of America |
|
United Kingdom |
650,000 |
National Autistic Society 2006 (based on rate of 1 in 100) |
|
Mexico |
150,000 |
Based on estimates by Ministry of Health of 2 to 6 per 1,000 |
|
Philippines |
500,000 |
Autism Society of Philippines |
|
Thailand |
180,000 |
Estimate of the Minister of Mental Health |
