Statistics

Facts and Stats

Recent estimates show there are approximately 4.92 million individuals in the U.S. living with an intellectual disability, which is about 17% of the U.S. population
(Braddock, et al. 2015)
Approximately 15% of children age 3-17, or 1 in 6 children, in the U.S. has some type of developmental disability
(Boyle, et al. 2011) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2015)
The State of California serves over 295,000 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through 21 regional centers (State of California Department of Developmental Services June 2015)

In a ten-year period, the number of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities served by the State of California increased 38% (State of California Department of Developmental Services January 2015)
Many children and adults have more
than one type of intellectual or developmental disability.
Each likely to result in a variety of challenges requiring different types of care and services
It is estimated that 30-35% of all
persons
with intellectual or developmental disabilities also have a psychiatric disorder
(National Association for the Dually Diagnosed (NADD) n.d.)

Lifetime costs associated with having a developmental disability such as autism can reach up to $2.4 million due to costly services such as special education, extra medical care, supportive care and therapeutic care (Buescher, et al. 2014)
In the U.S., 78% of federal, state and
local government spending
for intellectual and developmental disability services in 2013 was for the Medicaid program
(Braddock, et al. 2015)
In 2013, California spent over $6.3 billion on services for intellectual and developmental disabilities, and $4 billion of this spending was on Medi-Cal services for this community(Braddock, et al. 2015)

Children from families with low income have higher prevalence of intellectual/developmental disabilities (Boyle, et al. 2011)
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been shown to have poorer health and poorer access to health care (Havercamp and Scott 2015), (Havercamp, Scandlin and Roth, Health disparities among adults with developmental disabilities, adults with other disabilities, and adults not reporting disability in North Carolina 2004), (Voelker 2002)
Males have been shown to have twice the prevalence of any developmental disability than females (Boyle, et al. 2011), (Rubenstein, Wiggins and Lee 2015), (Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance Year 2010 Principal Investigators; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2014)

In California, there are 21 regional centers with a State contract to coordinate and provide basic services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (State of California Department of Developmental Services n.d.)