HHS says one in 31 children have autism; Kennedy vows to get answers by fall

Autism is “running rampant” in the U.S., with an estimated one in 31 children experiencing the disorder compared to one in 36 two years earlier, the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the statistic “shocking,” and said there is an “extreme risk” for boys in particular.

Mr. Kennedy pledged to get to the bottom of the increase.

“President Trump has tasked me with identifying the root causes of the childhood chronic disease epidemic — including autism,” Mr. Kennedy said. “We are assembling teams of world-class scientists to focus research on the origins of the epidemic, and we expect to begin to have answers by September.”

Autism is a developmental disorder that can impact how people learn, communicate and behave. There has been growing concern about rates of autism, alongside growing awareness of the disorder.

Mr. Kennedy said the rate increases are genuine, rejecting the idea that higher numbers are a result of better diagnoses.

“The epidemic is real,” he said at a press conference to outline the results of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network survey.

However, the CDC survey report suggested that rates of autism spectrum disorder could be linked to the availability of services.

“Research has not demonstrated that living in certain communities puts children at greater risk for developing ASD,” the report said. “Differences in the prevalence of children identified with ASD across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.”

The survey was based on a review of health records from 8-year-olds in more than a dozen states in 2022. The rate of 1 in 31 was up from 1 in 36 in 2020. The previous estimate was 1 in 44 in 2018.

Mr. Kennedy said if the increase was purely the result of diagnoses, then more older people would be found with autism alongside the increasing prevalence in young people.

Males are more likely females to be diagnosed with autism, he said, with prevalence reaching one in 20.

“There’s something wrong. And we’re going to find out about it,” Mr. Trump said in December.

During his confirmation process, Mr. Kennedy pledged to get to the bottom of the increase in autism. He’s faced criticism, however, for raising the unsubstantiated belief that vaccines might cause the disorder.

On Wednesday, the secretary did not point to vaccines but said the cause is likely an “environmental exposure” and not genetic factors, though he said researchers would look at everything.

“We’re going to look at obesity in the parents, we’re going to look at the age of the parents, we’re going to look at diabetes in the parents,” Mr. Kennedy said. “We’re going to look at all of these potential exposures.”

Mr. Kennedy said the studies will be led by the National Institutes of Health and credible university scientists, and done quickly.

“We’re going to follow the science no matter what it says,” he said. “We’re going to have some of the answers by September.”