Why autism rates have skyrocketed in the NYC metro area: study

Autism rates in the Big Apple have ballooned at a baffling rate.

Instances of Autism Spectrum Disorder have tripled in the New York-New Jersey metro area — from 1% of the population in 2000 to 3% in 2016.

That’s largely due to a growing number of diagnoses of children without intellectual disabilities, said researchers at Rutgers, in a new study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics.

They identified 4,661 8-year-olds with ASD in the metro area. The majority did not have intellectual disabilities (59.3%) and were therefore less likely to be previously identified. 

ASD is a developmental disorder that impacts an individual verbally, behaviorally and socially. Doctors make a diagnosis by looking at a child’s developmental history and behavior, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, since there is no exact medical test, determining ASD can be challenging. Some do not receive a diagnosis until they are adolescents or even adults.

But earlier, more accurate diagnoses don’t completely explain the upwards trend, which was based on estimates from the CDC.

Experts said that waiting too long to have kids could be partly responsible for the rise.

“Known environmental factors, such as parent age, are likely contributing. Many parents in the metro area wait to have children at older ages,” Josephine Shenouda, an adjunct professor at Rutgers and one of the lead authors of the study, told The Post.

“There are likely other yet-to-be known environmental [and] biological causes that require further investigations,” she added.

According to the CDC, the rate of women having their first child after 40 more than doubled between 1990 and 2012. In New York, the rate went up 57% between 2000 and 2012.

Meanwhile, data from the U.S. Census Bureau released last year found that the median age of new moms is now 30 — the highest on record.

Previous research suggests that moms over 40 have a 51% higher risk of having a child with autism than mothers ages 25 to 29, and a 77% higher risk than moms under age 25.

The Rutgers study also found that black children are likely under-diagnosed with autism — particularly if they don’t have intellectual disabilities. While the racial gap in autism diagnoses is diminishing — partially explaining the rise in autism cases overall — the actual numbers may be even higher in this demographic.

“Historically, children residing in less affluent areas, and black and Hispanic children, had lower rates of autism,” Shenouda said. “Today, we see [fewer] disparities in identification among those groups, but [they] still remain, and going forward will likely contribute to continued increases in autism as we address those disparities.”