A report by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that one per cent children in the U. S., about one in 110, had autism in 2006. Media quoted on Monday.

The new figure was derived from a wide-ranging set of data based on the developmental health of eight-year-olds from about 11 states.

U. S. health officials noticed during an effort to quantify the risk of autism that the number had gone up to 57 per cent since 2002.

Experts also stated that boys were more affected by autism than girls. One in 70 boys was diagnosed with the disorder, compared with one in 315 girls. But reports also stated that girls diagnosed with autism had more severe symptoms. However, not all experts agree that there is a surge in autism cases.

Catherine Rice, a CDC behavioral scientist who worked on the new report, stated that autism might actually not be increasing but it depends on how well records are kept.

President Barack Obama has designated to improve U. S. medical and scientific research for which the National Institutes of Health plans to spend more on autism research by using money from the $5 billion.