Whether you’re on the autism spectrum or not, most are aware that autism awareness has skyrocketed in recent years. When I attended an autism-resource base in 2011, autism was a word recognised by some teachers and very few young-people. An international boom in psychiatric research from organisations like Autism Speaks and the Sanger Institute from 2010 onwards meant that in a relatively short span of time, autism became a far more familiar term. Coupled with the resurfacing of the controversial and largely fraudulent findings of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 investigation into the potential relationship between vaccines and autism, and it’s no surprise that discussions around the condition have become a minefield of speculative theory, amateur psychiatry and widespread socio-political discourse.
So what’s all the fuss about? Well, on the 31st March the Department of Health and Social Care released its independent review of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism. This follows public debate surrounding the growing rates of diagnosis, lack of accessibility and seemingly contradictory studies depicting a condition undergoing an unprecedented social metamorphosis.
The lack of certainty and opportunities for education has left these debates spiralling in a myriad of different directions. Do rising rates of diagnoses correspond with an increase in parental anxieties? A brief look at the recent review reveals that instances of self-identified and parent-reported autism have increased considerably in recent years – with GP Patient Survey data indicating an 180% increase in self-identified autism since 2018. Meanwhile, other findings indicate the prevalence of autistic symptoms has remained relatively stable, only increasing by 0.3% between 2004 and 2017. To the glancing eye, this certainly seems to imply that more people are being diagnosed with autism without having genuine traits. Or perhaps the blame lies with the increasingly vague concept of the autistic spectrum – which underwent major changes in 2013 with the combining of ‘classic’ autism (sometimes referred to as Kanner’s autism) and Asperger’s syndrome.
The recent government review implies a far less popular answer to the question of rising rates of diagnosis – it’s complicated.
With rising awareness of autism – regardless of how the diagnostic criteria has changed in recent years – comes an increase in assessments. NHS and private assessments have both increased as parents and undiagnosed adults become aware of how diverse the autistic spectrum is. Such considerable growth in awareness is cause enough for a notable increase in diagnoses, but the recent review reveals a far more intricate picture of where these cases are coming from.
Historically, autism has been considerably more prevalent in boys. Current data estimates place males as three-times more likely to be diagnosed than their female counterparts (Priory Statistics, 2025), yet the DHSC’s review states that “recent analyses suggests especially rapid growth among girls and young people with a learning disability”. Diagnoses have also increased in different ethnic populations, with high rates currently recorded within Black and Mixed-Ethnicity school-aged pupils. This indicates that the ability of practitioners to identify autism in girls and those from different cultural backgrounds has improved markedly as public awareness also increases.
Despite this, the recent review also finds that autism diagnoses are considerably more common in less deprived areas – a whopping 113 per 100’000 compared to only 63 in 100’000 in more deprived areas. The results here are clear; accessibility remains a problem, even as rates of diagnosis continue to rise.
As a teacher, the idea that children are being wrongly diagnosed with autism is laughable. I have never encountered an autistic student who I didn’t believe to be autistic. Having been diagnosed myself in 2006 before the sudden rise in public awareness and the 2013 diagnostic changes, the only difference I have observed is a growth in public doubt. Increasingly, adults who have very little experience with autism seem to believe that they are absolutely capable of identifying when a child has been wrongly labelled due to being ‘poorly behaved’. This shallow perception of autism completely disregards any aspects of the condition that do not relate to behavioural difficulties, and leaves parents battling a wave of criticism as they struggle against access inequality and misinformation.
