Developmental Disability Statistics in 2026: Prevalence, Demographics, and Service Gaps

Developmental disability statistics at a glance

Developmental disability statistics are easy to misread if you only look at one age group, one diagnosis, or one year.

The dataset here shows a broader pattern: prevalence varies by condition, age, sex, and race/ethnicity, and the gaps are often large enough to change how you think about need, support, and service planning (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473; CDC NCHS NHSR 139; CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Fast facts

8.10% of U.S. children aged 3-17 years had ever been diagnosed with any developmental disability in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
3.11% had ever been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
1.85% had ever been diagnosed with intellectual disability in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
5.67% had ever been diagnosed with other developmental delay in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
In 2022 ADDM data, autism prevalence among 8-year-olds was 32.2 per 1,000, or about 1 in 31 children (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Those numbers are not interchangeable. They describe different definitions, different surveillance methods, and different parts of the developmental disability picture.

What the latest developmental disability statistics show
Prevalence by diagnosis
Age and sex patterns
Race and ethnicity differences
Urban and rural service patterns
What changed over time
Autism surveillance details from 2022
Why the numbers matter

What the latest developmental disability statistics show

A useful way to read developmental disability statistics is to separate prevalence from service access.

Prevalence tells you how many children are identified with a condition. Service patterns tell you how many are getting help, how early support works, and where gaps remain. This dataset includes both, which makes the comparison especially useful (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473; CDC NCHS NHSR 139; CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Key takeaways

Any developmental disability affected 8.10% of U.S. children aged 3-17 years in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Autism spectrum disorder was diagnosed in 3.11% of U.S. children aged 3-17 years in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Intellectual disability was diagnosed in 1.85% of U.S. children aged 3-17 years in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Other developmental delay was diagnosed in 5.67% of U.S. children aged 3-17 years in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

The combined picture matters because the diagnosis profile is uneven. Other developmental delay is more common than autism or intellectual disability in this dataset, which means a lot of the support burden sits outside the diagnoses most people mention first.

Prevalence by diagnosis

Here is the clearest high-level comparison in the dataset.

Measure	U.S. children aged 3-17 years	Source
Any developmental disability	8.10%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Autism spectrum disorder	3.11%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Intellectual disability	1.85%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Other developmental delay	5.67%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473

Two things stand out immediately.

First, any developmental disability is not just autism plus intellectual disability. The “other developmental delay” category alone is 5.67% for U.S. children aged 3-17 years, which means it is a major part of the overall prevalence picture (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

Second, autism and intellectual disability are both substantial, but they sit inside a broader mix of developmental conditions. If you only focus on one diagnosis, you miss the scale of the rest.

Big number

8.10% of children aged 3-17 years had ever been diagnosed with any developmental disability in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

That one figure is the best starting point for the dataset, but it becomes much more useful once you split it by sex, age, and demographic group.

Age and sex patterns

The sex gap is one of the strongest patterns in the dataset.

For any developmental disability, boys were at 10.76% while girls were at 5.31% in 2019-2021 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473). That means boys were identified at about twice the rate of girls.

The same direction appears in the other categories:

Autism spectrum disorder: 4.66% for boys vs 1.50% for girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Intellectual disability: 2.31% for boys vs 1.37% for girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Other developmental delay: 7.31% for boys vs 3.94% for girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

Comparison table

Condition	Boys	Girls	Source
Any developmental disability	10.76%	5.31%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Autism spectrum disorder	4.66%	1.50%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Intellectual disability	2.31%	1.37%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473
Other developmental delay	7.31%	3.94%	CDC NCHS Data Brief 473

That table makes the scale of the gap easier to see. In every category listed here, boys had the higher prevalence.

Age differences are present too, though they are not identical across diagnoses.

Any developmental disability: 8.42% for ages 3-7, 8.05% for ages 8-12, and 7.84% for ages 13-17 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Autism spectrum disorder: 2.62% for ages 3-7, 3.36% for ages 8-12, and 3.35% for ages 13-17 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Intellectual disability: 1.39% for ages 3-7, 1.79% for ages 8-12, and 2.35% for ages 13-17 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Other developmental delay: 6.58% for ages 3-7, 5.56% for ages 8-12, and 4.89% for ages 13-17 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

What the age split suggests

Autism prevalence rises from early childhood into middle childhood and stays similar into adolescence in this dataset (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Intellectual disability is lowest at ages 3-7 and highest at ages 13-17 in this dataset (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Other developmental delay declines as age increases across the three age groups shown (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

That does not mean the underlying need disappears with age. It means the diagnosed pattern changes, which is important when you think about screening, evaluation timing, and support planning.

Race and ethnicity differences

The race and ethnicity breakdown adds another layer.

For any developmental disability in 2019-2021:

Non-Hispanic Black children: 9.07% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic White children: 8.42% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Hispanic children: 7.40% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic Asian children: 4.85% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)

For autism spectrum disorder:

Non-Hispanic Black children: 3.56% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic White children: 3.06% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Hispanic children: 2.96% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic Asian children: 2.87% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)

For intellectual disability:

Non-Hispanic Black children: 2.82% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Hispanic children: 1.77% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic White children: 1.76% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic Asian children: 0.72% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)

For other developmental delay:

Non-Hispanic White children: 6.00% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic Black children: 6.43% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Hispanic children: 5.13% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)
Non-Hispanic Asian children: 2.53% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473)

Fast facts by group

Non-Hispanic Black children had the highest prevalence of any developmental disability in the race and ethnicity split shown here (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Non-Hispanic Asian children had the lowest prevalence in every category listed in this section (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
The spread is widest for other developmental delay, where the values range from 2.53% to 6.43% (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).

These are descriptive differences, not explanations. The dataset tells you where the gaps are; it does not tell you why they exist.

Urban and rural service patterns

The 2015-2018 data add a different kind of insight: access and service use.

Developmental disability prevalence was 17.4% among urban children aged 3-17 years and 19.8% among rural children aged 3-17 years in this dataset, compared with 17.8% overall for U.S. children aged 3-17 years (CDC NCHS NHSR 139).

That rural-urban difference is worth noticing, but the service-use gaps are even more important.

Service use comparison

Measure	Urban	Rural	Source
Saw a mental health professional in the past 12 months	33.1%	24.6%	CDC NCHS NHSR 139
Received special education or early intervention services	44.2%	37.7%	CDC NCHS NHSR 139
Had zero specialty health care services in the past 12 months	41.8%	49.4%	CDC NCHS NHSR 139

The pattern is consistent across all three service measures.

Urban children with developmental disabilities were more likely to see a mental health professional (33.1% vs 24.6%) (CDC NCHS NHSR 139).
Urban children with developmental disabilities were more likely to receive special education or early intervention services (44.2% vs 37.7%) (CDC NCHS NHSR 139).
Rural children with developmental disabilities were more likely to have zero specialty health care services in the past 12 months (49.4% vs 41.8%) (CDC NCHS NHSR 139).

Why it matters

This is not a small difference. It suggests that where a child lives may shape the practical experience of a developmental disability just as much as the diagnosis itself.

What changed over time

The 2014-2016 data show that prevalence was not static.

Any developmental disability increased from 5.76% in 2014 to 6.99% in 2016 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).
Other developmental delay increased from 3.57% in 2014 to 4.55% in 2016 (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).
Autism spectrum disorder prevalence among boys was 3.63% versus 1.25% among girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).
Autism spectrum disorder prevalence was 2.76% among non-Hispanic White children versus 1.82% among Hispanic children (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).

The age and sex patterns in this earlier dataset also reinforce the later data.

Intellectual disability prevalence was 1.48% among boys versus 0.90% among girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).
Any developmental disability prevalence was 8.15% among boys versus 4.29% among girls (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).
Any developmental disability prevalence was 5.76% among children aged 13-17 years and 6.87% among children aged 8-12 years (CDC NCHS Data Brief 291).

The main trendline

The repeated pattern across the older and newer CDC data is not that every percentage moves in a straight line. It is that developmental disability remains common, differences by subgroup are persistent, and the composition of diagnoses matters as much as the total.

Autism surveillance details from 2022

The 2022 ADDM dataset gives a more detailed autism surveillance snapshot.

The headline figure is 32.2 per 1,000 among 8-year-olds, which is about 1 in 31 children (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

That alone is useful, but the subgroup and site differences make the dataset much richer.

Site spread

Autism prevalence among 8-year-olds ranged from 9.7 per 1,000 in Texas (Laredo) to 53.1 per 1,000 in California (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Among 4-year-olds, prevalence ranged from 12.9 per 1,000 in Indiana to 60.6 per 1,000 in California (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Those are very wide ranges. They show that local surveillance context matters a lot when reading the numbers.

Sex and race patterns in 2022 ADDM data

Boys: 49.2 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
Girls: 14.3 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))

That is a 3.4-times difference in the dataset (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

By race and ethnicity, autism prevalence among 8-year-olds was:

Asian or Pacific Islander: 38.2 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
American Indian or Alaska Native: 37.5 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
Non-Hispanic Black: 36.6 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
Hispanic: 33.0 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
Multiracial: 31.9 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))
Non-Hispanic White: 27.7 per 1,000 (CDC MMWR 74(2))

Surveillance site examples

A few site-level counts help show the scale behind the rates.

California: 15,212 8-year-old children in the surveillance population and 807 autism cases (CDC MMWR 74(2) Table 1).
Georgia: 35,213 children and 1,149 cases (CDC MMWR 74(2) Table 1).
New Jersey: 26,972 children and 1,079 cases (CDC MMWR 74(2) Table 1).
Wisconsin: 27,042 children and 980 cases (CDC MMWR 74(2) Table 1).
Tennessee: 33,386 children and 932 cases (CDC MMWR 74(2) Table 1).

Why the numbers matter

A strong reading of developmental disability statistics has to do three things at once.

It separates broad prevalence from individual diagnoses.
It compares age, sex, race, and geography without flattening the differences.
It keeps service access in view, not just diagnosis counts.

A few of the most important takeaways from this dataset are especially clear:

Developmental disability is common enough that even the baseline prevalence of 8.10% affects a large share of families (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Boys show higher prevalence than girls across every diagnostic category listed here (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473; CDC NCHS Data Brief 291; CDC MMWR 74(2)).
Non-Hispanic Asian children have the lowest percentages in the race and ethnicity comparisons shown in this dataset (CDC NCHS Data Brief 473).
Rural children with developmental disabilities face lower service use and more zero-service gaps than urban children in the measures shown here (CDC NCHS NHSR 139).
Autism surveillance in 2022 shows substantial variation across sites and demographic groups, with a national prevalence of 32.2 per 1,000 among 8-year-olds (CDC MMWR 74(2)).

Taken together, the numbers point to a simple but important idea: developmental disability statistics are not one story. They are a set of overlapping patterns, and the useful interpretation comes from comparing those patterns carefully rather than treating them as a single headline figure.