Girls, Boys, and Age of Diagnosis

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss gender differences in autism identification.

 Bartelt K, Barkley E, Trinkl J, Deckert J. Diagnosis of Autism Occurring Earlier in Children, Though Still Late for Many; Initial Diagnosis in Adulthood Increasing in Women. Epic Research. https://epicresearch.org/articles/diagnosis-of-autism-occurring-earlier-in-children-though-still-late-for-many-initial-diagnosis-in-adulthood-increasing-in-women. Accessed on August 15, 2025.

Key Findings

• The median age at autism diagnosis declined slightly from 7 years of age in 2015 to 6 years in 2024. Male patients are increasingly diagnosed earlier with the median age at diagnosis dropping from 7 years in 2015 to 5 in 2024. However, the median age for females remained near 8 years over the same period.
• Of male patients diagnosed with autism in 2024, 44% were under age 5. In that same year, 34% of diagnosed females were under age 5, indicating more than half of patients were diagnosed later than age 5 and might have benefitted from earlier diagnosis.
• The proportion of female patients diagnosed as adults (ages 19+) was 25% in 2024, while 12% of males were diagnosed with autism as adults in the same year.