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Number of Aspies Worldwide?

Beguiling Orbit

Neurotribe Champion
V.I.P Member
I was trying to find out how many aspies there are worldwide. The number 37.2 million keeps popping up in my Google search, based on a 2015 study. That sounds high to me. Autism Speaks estimates the total worldwide population of people with ASD to be in the "tens of millions" (Which is it? 20M? 50M? 90M?). Since aspies are an x percentage of that number, then it does not necessarily jibe with the number in the study, unless aspies constitute a very high percentage of the overall spectrum numbers. If 37.2 million is accurate, then even a number of 90 million for ASD would put the aspie percentage within that larger population at 41.3%. Again, sounds a bit high to me. (I can be persuaded otherwise. :))

Does anyone have accurate information about the worldwide aspie population? Please, let's not resort to WAGs (although SWAGs would be acceptable). And, please, please, please, let's try to be collaborative, not antagonistic.
 
I was trying to find out how many aspies there are worldwide. The number 37.2 million keeps popping up in my Google search, based on a 2015 study. That sounds high to me. Autism Speaks estimates the total worldwide population of people with ASD to be in the "tens of millions" (Which is it? 20M? 50M? 90M?). Since aspies are an x percentage of that number, then it does not necessarily jibe with the number in the study, unless aspies constitute a very high percentage of the overall spectrum numbers. If 37.2 million is accurate, then even a number of 90 million for ASD would put the aspie percentage within that larger population at 41.3%. Again, sounds a bit high to me. (I can be persuaded otherwise. :))

Does anyone have accurate information about the worldwide aspie population? Please, let's not resort to WAGs (although SWAGs would be acceptable). And, please, please, please, let's try to be collaborative, not antagonistic.
In 2012 Yahoo! answers give the total as 20 million
 
As you know how accurate is a diagnosis you can't pigeonhole one person into a set of symptoms decided by neuro typicals
 
Based on 7 billion people in the world and 1% of those diagnosed with ASD, that would be 70 million with ASD. I think I recently read somewhere that 25% of those have the most severe form of autism, and I will assume that another 25% are strongly affected, but without severe intellectual disabilities. That leaves 50% with Aspergers and HFA, which are pretty much the same thing in adulthood. That makes 35 million aspies worldwide. Keep in mind that is a ballpark figure based on estimates and vague memories, but it does match well with the 37.2 million figure you found.

How accurate do you need the figure to be?
 
This article gives some information about the prevalence of autism in various countries. It isn't as detailed or accurate as it could be, though, because of the lack of access to diagnostic resources in developing countries. So it's difficult to tell for sure.

Any reason for separating Aspies from other autistic people?
 
This article gives some information about the prevalence of autism in various countries. It isn't as detailed or accurate as it could be, though, because of the lack of access to diagnostic resources in developing countries. So it's difficult to tell for sure.

Any reason for separating Aspies from other autistic people?
Thanks, @OrSomething. Yeah, that Wikipedia page is interesting. There's no data for the entire continent of Africa, which comprises 16% of the world's population. That's a big hole in the knowledge base.

No specific reason for separating Aspies from other autistic people. Interesting question. (I can't tell whether it's loaded or not. Am I about to get in trouble no matter what I answer I give? That seems to happen quite frequently on this forum.) The short answer is that I'm an Aspie who wants to know how many other Aspies there are, simple as that. I'm also curious about finding the percentages of all the subcategories within our ASD family. It would certainly help us arrive at a more accurate number.
 
Thanks, @OrSomething. Yeah, that Wikipedia page is interesting. There's no data for the entire continent of Africa, which comprises 16% of the world's population. That's a big hole in the knowledge base.

No specific reason for separating Aspies from other autistic people. Interesting question. (I can't tell whether it's loaded or not. Am I about to get in trouble no matter what I answer I give? That seems to happen quite frequently on this forum.) The short answer is that I'm an Aspie who wants to know how many other Aspies there are, simple as that. I'm also curious about finding the percentages of all the subcategories within our ASD family. It would certainly help us arrive at a more accurate number.
Tell me about it,you just think you're helping people then you're in trouble again remember if you're not banned by the moderators keep on saying what you're saying!
 
Personally,I feel you are looking for a number that will be impossible to quantify.

Kind of like asking how many grains of sand there are on a beach.
 
Personally,I feel you are looking for a number that will be impossible to quantify.
Kind of like asking how many grains of sand there are on a beach.
How large is the beach? :p (No, don't worry, I'm just being playful, I have no intention whatsoever of counting grains of sand)

I feel it might be hard to quantify because of it would be tricky to assess how many people sought a diagnosis, but were misdiagnosed, how many feel something isn't right, but haven't yet encountered information on autism that would come as an epiphany, how many actually somehow manage due to various circumstances and are on the spectrum, but with a milder impact on their life (say, the person who went into data mining by complete chance, and is left alone enough to never be perceived as too odd, and may or may not have received another diagnosis for their anxiety, for example).
 
How large is the beach? :p (No, don't worry, I'm just being playful, I have no intention whatsoever of counting grains of sand)

I feel it might be hard to quantify because of it would be tricky to assess how many people sought a diagnosis, but were misdiagnosed, how many feel something isn't right, but haven't yet encountered information on autism that would come as an epiphany, how many actually somehow manage due to various circumstances and are on the spectrum, but with a milder impact on their life (say, the person who went into data mining by complete chance, and is left alone enough to never be perceived as too odd, and may or may not have received another diagnosis for their anxiety, for example).
I still question whether I'm worthy of my title ;)
 
Hm, let's count to 'figure' it out. I'll start. One!

Being serious. I think the 1% seems plausible, although it's really hard to say, seeing how easily it is to misdiagnose aspies with mental illnesses or for example bipolars with autism etc. There's no real way to know how many exactly are out there. I think there may be more of us than we know, just hiding, pretending to be 'normal' like everyone, not knowing they belong here.

It would be nice to know. Who knows, we could create our auti-aspie nation, huh.
 
How large is the beach? :p (No, don't worry, I'm just being playful, I have no intention whatsoever of counting grains of sand)

I feel it might be hard to quantify because of it would be tricky to assess how many people sought a diagnosis, but were misdiagnosed, how many feel something isn't right, but haven't yet encountered information on autism that would come as an epiphany, how many actually somehow manage due to various circumstances and are on the spectrum, but with a milder impact on their life (say, the person who went into data mining by complete chance, and is left alone enough to never be perceived as too odd, and may or may not have received another diagnosis for their anxiety, for example).

Just remembered how I counted grains of sand as a kid. Nothing like an interesting hobby.
 
One thing to consider is that different countries use different diagnostic manuals, meaning that there are different criteria for getting diagnosed with autism depending on where you live. The best bet if you are looking for an accurate number is to narrow your scope down to just one country. But even then you have to consider the large number of autistic people who grew up during a time when discovering you had a disability destroyed your chances of leading a successful life. Most of those people will die undiagnosed. We have a few people on this forum who discovered they have ASD late in life, but they are an exception to the trend. Suffice it to say that there are way too many undiagnosed Aspies for you to ever find the number you seek.
 
One thing to consider is that different countries use different diagnostic manuals, meaning that there are different criteria for getting diagnosed with autism depending on where you live. The best bet if you are looking for an accurate number is to narrow your scope down to just one country. But even then you have to consider the large number of autistic people who grew up during a time when discovering you had a disability destroyed your chances of leading a successful life. Most of those people will die undiagnosed. We have a few people on this forum who discovered they have ASD late in life, but they are an exception to the trend. Suffice it to say that there are way too many undiagnosed Aspies for you to ever find the number you seek.
I had to break my brain pretty late in life in order to stumble across my place on the autism spectrum,otherwise it would have remained an unknown.

When I was working,I was just that quirky guy that was able to come up with lots of good solutions to mechanical problems.
Being eidetic with a killer brain running the show actually enhanced my abilities during mechanical design work.
There has to be many more out there like me who never raised enough concern to even wonder about it.

The known ones that are being diagnosed today are generally caught up in it because they have severe enough deficits to warrant a closer look at them.

A great example of that is my little aspie buddy who got his diagnosis because he was having severe seizure activity.

How many more slip thru the cracks that are diagnosed as having clinical depression,social phobias or a myriad of other psych issues?
 
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