According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental condition that can affect social skills, communication, and behavior. Because it’s a spectrum, experiences vary widely — some people are nonverbal and need daily support, while others have advanced conversational skills and live independently. |
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Autism’s been getting a lot of news attention lately, but here are the numbers behind the headlines. |
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- In 2022, 32 out of 1,000 monitored 8-year-olds were diagnosed with autism. In other words, that’s 3.2%, which was up from 1.5% in 2010 and 0.7% in 2000.
- Boys are more than three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls. In 2022, 4.9% of 8-year-old boys had autism, compared to 1.4% of 8-year-old girls.
- As diagnostic tools improve and doctors track developmental differences more closely, doctors are diagnosing more and more children nationwide. The CDC says it’s unclear how much the increase can be attributed to changes to the clinical definition of autism, or increased efforts to diagnose.
- Autism is being diagnosed earlier, too. Children born in 2018 were 1.7 times more likely to be diagnosed by age 4 than those born in 2014.
- The CDC collected this data in 2022, the most recent report year, by tracking 274,857 children at 16 sites in 14 states and Puerto Rico. The prevalence of autism varied by site. The CDC defines “prevalence” as the number of people in a set population that have a condition. Combined prevalence includes data across all sites.
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How the government measures poverty |
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The federal poverty level is a cornerstone of how social programs work. These guidelines determine eligibility for programs like Medicaid and CHIP. We dug through Census Bureau data to break down the ins and outs of the federal poverty level. Here’s what you need to know.
- The federal poverty level depends on the size of a family or household, the number of children in that household, and whether someone is 65 or older in one- or two-person households. See all the values used in 2024 here.
- In 2025, the level was $15,650 for a single-person household, $32,150 for a family of four, and $54,150 for a family of eight. The level increases by roughly $5,500 for each additional person.
- The poverty level helps determine eligibility for federal assistance programs to support low-income individuals and families, including SNAP, the National School Lunch Program, and Head Start.
- The poverty level is based on more granular poverty thresholds, which are used for calculating national poverty statistics. The thresholds break households down further by family structure, while the poverty level is simplified into the size of the household.
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A note on data during the shutdown |
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When the government shuts down, its activities are divided into what’s commonly called “essential” and “nonessential.”
Essential components related to data include IT infrastructure maintenance, some internal reporting on essential activities, and reporting on emergencies. But generally, data is not considered an essential function and agencies stop reporting most statistics.
This includes the Census Bureau, which said it’s pausing collecting some economic and disaster-related data. It also includes the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which suspended reporting on key indicators such as gross domestic product and personal income. We’re working on bringing you more information at USAFacts.org soon. |
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The federal government shut down on October 1 while Congress failed to agree on a continuing resolution to fund the government. Get answers to some of the most-asked questions about government shutdowns. Last week, two regional jets collided at low speeds on the taxiway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in New York. No one was killed. We have the safety data on flying versus driving. Are you up to date on USAFacts articles? Then test yourself with the weekly fact quiz. |
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The current shutdown notwithstanding, the federal government has had 10 shutdowns of various lengths since 1976. The shortest shutdowns have lasted a day; there were several of those in the 1980s. The longest was in 2019, lasting for more than a month: 34 days. This one? Six days. And counting.
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