Autism Statistics and Facts

Autism is a lifelong, social communication condition.  

Autism affects the way a person relates to people, social situations, and the immediate environment, including their day to day routines. Many autistic people experience differences in processing everyday sensory information like sight, smells, touch, tastes and sounds. 

Autism is often referred to as a spectrum condition. This means that once you know once autistic person, you know that autistic person, and other autistic people will have their own unique experiences and characteristics.

While autistic people will experience differences in communication, interaction and processing the world around them, every autistic person will have different needs in these areas.

 For example, some autistic people may be non-verbal and some autistic people may use lots of language but experience other communication differences. Both people have communication differences related to autism, but their needs, and how we support them, will look different. This is why we refer to autism as a spectrum condition. 

Autism is something people are born with. It’s caused by differences in how the brain develops. These differences affect how someone thinks, learns, and interacts with others.

Scientists believe autism is linked to genes and how the brain grows before birth, but no one thing causes it. Autism is not caused by parenting and there is no scientific link between autism and vaccines. There is no known cure for autism, as autism is not an illness. It’s a natural part of human diversity.

Currently, 1 in 17 children and young people in NI are autistic. This rate has increased over the last number of years, due to more autistic people being formally assessed and identified. Research indicates that it is not that there are more autistic people now than there were in the past; we are just better at identifying and diagnosing the condition. 

The reason we focus on statistics for children and young people is that they are much more readily available and accurate, as there are a significant number of undiagnosed autistic adults in our society. 

Autism assessments are available for children and adults. The assessment and diagnosis process includes developmental screenings, observations and formal assessment tools. 

Find out more information about autism diagnosis

Yes, autism is officially recognised as a social communication disability. In Northern Ireland, the Autism Act (NI) 2011 gave autism this classification. This means that autistic people are protected by equality laws; they have the same right to access services and support as everyone else and must not be treated unfairly.

However, not everyone who is autistic sees themselves as having a disability. Some people prefer to use words like condition or difference instead. It’s important to respect how each person chooses to describe their own experience.

No, autism is a social communication disability. Approximately 20 - 25% of autistic people will have an accompanying learning disability. 

No, autism is a social communication disability, not a mental health condition. Autistic people are more likely to need mental health support than neurotypical people due to additional stresses and barriers they face in everyday life, but this is due to a lack of understanding, acceptance and accessibility. 

Statistics show that there are approximately three males diagnosed with autism for every one female diagnosed. However, we know that it is sometimes harder to assess females with autism and therefore this statistic can hide the true number of autistic females. Find out more about autism and females here. 

Yes, autistic people will have a range of skills and expertise to bring to a workplace, and can be excellent employees and members of a team. However, we know that autistic people experience many more barriers to accessing and retaining a job, due to misunderstandings about autism and employers not having accessible recruitment procedures. 

Statistics show that only 21.7% of autistic people are in employment, showing that businesses need to understand more about autism to give autistic people a fair chance. 

Find out more on our Employment factsheet

Some autistic people will have a PDA profile or ‘Pathological Demand Avoidance’. This is now understood to be a profile within the autism spectrum. It involves the avoidance of everyday demands and the use of social strategies as part of this.

The autistic community often refer to PDA as 'Pervasive Drive for Autonomy'; this neurodivergent affirming phrase was first coined by Wilder. It is recognised that PDAers share many autistic characteristics but in addition will have the key features of a PDA profile.

Autism NI provide training about PDA for parents/carers and for professionals. 

Find out more about our training

Asperger’s Syndrome is no longer used as a separate diagnostic term, as it is just considered part of the autism spectrum. Some autistic people may still use the term as this was the diagnosis they received when they were assessed.