Time trends of autism spectrum diagnoses among children aged 4-6 in Denmark, 1995–2010: This chart vividly shows the rise in autism spectrum diagnoses among young children over the past decades in one representative Western nation (Denmark). Is this alarming increase partly due to the massive media attention focused on this condition? We do not know. Interestingly, however, as the new criteria for labeling autism spectrum disorders are more stringent, the number of children diagnosed with this condition may decline a bit in subsequent years.

Data from: Jensen, C, Steinhausen, H., & Lauritson, M. B. (1914).