Global prevalence of autism: A systematic review update

🤖 Plain-English Summary

Prevalence estimates of autism are essential for informing public policy, raising awareness, and developing research priorities. Prevalence estimates increased over time and varied greatly within and across sociodemographic groups.

🔑 Key Findings

• Using a systematic review, we synthesized estimates of the prevalence of autism worldwide.
• We examined factors accounting for variability in estimates and critically reviewed evidence relevant for hypotheses about biological or social determinants (viz., biological sex, sociodemographic status, ethnicity/race, and nativity) potentially modifying prevalence estimates of autism.
• We performed the search in November 2021 within Medline for studies estimating autism prevalence, published since our last systematic review in 2012.

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