CDC: Data suggests 1 in 44 children diagnosed with autism

• In 2016, the agency said 1 in 54 children had been diagnosed with autism.

The big picture: The number of people getting diagnosed with autism has been increasing, however, experts believe that is due to increased awareness around the condition.

• "There’s greater awareness in the community around autism, more training of clinicians, more early childhood educators — that whole effort has increased awareness," Coleen Boyle, former director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said in 2014.

Details: The study found that although autism diagnoses increased, the proportion of children with autism who also have an intellectual disability has decreased from one-half in 2000 and 2002 to one-third in 2016.

• The CDC also reported decreased racial and ethnic disparities in autism prevalence and that there were "no overall difference in [autism] prevalence between" white and Black children.
• However, rates were higher among Black children in Maryland and Minnesota.

• CDC researchers reported that Hispanic children were less likely to be identified as having autism than white or Black children.

Of note: In Utah, children from low-income families were more likely to get diagnosed than those in wealthier families, when, years before, it was the other way around.

• Amanda Bakian, who oversees the CDC’s autism surveillance in that state, told AP that that could be due to more autism coverage by Medicaid and other health insurance providers.