One in 50 Children have a form of Autism in U.S., Boys Four More Times Likely to be Diagnosed than Girls

A new study shows that the number of children with autism in the United States has jumped dramatically since 2007.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that as of 2012, one in 50 children between the ages of 6 and 17 has some form of autism. This is a dramatic jump from the one in 88 only five years prior.

"This estimate was a bit surprising," said report author Stephen Blumberg, a senior scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "There may be more children with autism spectrum disorder than previously thought."

The average school bus holds about 50 children, so there is typically one child with autism spectrum disorder on every full school bus in America, Blumberg noted according to USNNews.com.

Associate director for Public Health Research and Scientific Review at Autism Speaks, Michael Rosanoff, also noted that "this study added to the evidence suggesting that we are underestimating the prevalence of autism in the United States."

Yet criticisms of the study indicate that the numbers of children with the disorder may actually be underreported.

"It's probably much higher," he said.

However, many believe that the increase in the prevalence of autism can be pointed to better diagnoses and technological advances, especially in older children, according to Blumberg.

In addition, boys were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls, which has been the historical trend, Blumberg said.

"For the most part, the increase in the prevalence is largely due to an increase in the prevalence in reported autism spectrum disorder for boys," he said.

To reach their conclusions, researchers gathered data from the National Survey of Children's Health, which is a national telephone survey of nearly 96,000 American households. As part of the survey, parents are asked whether they have a child diagnosed with autism.