How many people live near an Autism Cluster?

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There have been numerous areas found to have "clusters" of Autism cases such as New Jersey, California, and other areas.

It would be neat to pinpoint different areas where clusters of Autism cases where found.

Orange County,CA has clusters however there is controversy about whether or not it is due to parental older age/upper class finances to afford diagnosis'.

I know certain areas in NJ such as Harrington Park are said to have clusters.
Sometimes you have to know someone currently living in the area to know of a cluster, the above town i have friends living there and my friends exgf mentioned it.

It would be interesting to see how many clusters come up and their locations in regards to airports, pollution nearby, etc.

I live in Orange County, California, and I am an educated white male, officially diagnosed with AS/HFA.

It's fair to point out that these articles are as old as 3 years.

Article in Los Angeles Times:

Article on the NPR Website:



Article in The Lancet:


Aside from calling Autism a disease, I have no conflict with these reports.

There seems to be an awful lot of us around here. I'd call Metro Vancouver a "cluster," area even w/o statistics to back it up, especially since (IMO) there are tons of undiagnosed people here. Many factors draw us here, environment, tech sector, culture, international melting pot etc.

That doesnt surprise me. Autism diagnosis and services can be expensive. Higher educated parents who make more $$ tend to have access to better resources to get there child diagnosed. And even beyond diagnosis, some autism experts charge huge bucks for there services. And what else? Pretty much everything.

Edit...in realizing I didnt answer the OP question
I think these autism clusters tend to exist where theres more awareness and services which tend to be in bigger cities/states. It doesnt nessarily mean a higher percentage of autistic people in those areas, well some if were considering maybe silicon valley but most places...nope.

Can someone post a map of these clusters?

I'm pretty bummed about not living in Vancouver now.

Keyword is, "now," as you still may have the option for an academic transfer/exchange in the relative short term, and you'll always have the option of relocating temporarily, or permanently, for the rest of your life.

It would be very difficult to prove, but I suspect there are a lot more undiagnosed Aspies around here than diagnosed ones due to the tolerance & acceptance of virtually every foreign culture present here - we just sort of tend to fit in & float on by through life doing allllright like a bunch of semi-oblivious Mr. Beans w/o too much hassle. The environment & lifestyle keeps us grounded, and a variety of AS suited jobs keep us employed - sometimes in pretty awesome well suited jobs, too. Vancouver is such a balanced place.. it seems as much as the tech sector grows, so does the yoga & meditation scene - heck, Deepak Chopra opened up his first yoga studio here last year & Lulu Lemon was founded here etc. Since so many people here are getting into all sorts of this sort of stuff here to maintain a balance in our fast paced lives, I suspect a lot of AS people have taken a liking to them and are finding their own balance here very intuitively w/o being seen as some sort of fringe hippy weirdo in the process. Just a few hours North of Seattle & Kurt Cobain's, "Come, as you are.." is very much alive & well.

I was born in Vancouver (which is noteworthy, even here, since 1/3rd of Vancouverites were born outside of Canada.) & will never relocate from the Metro Vancouver area. So, cya when you get here.

Im a sub TA here in fla in a local school district,, i work mostly in ESE classes.. I see a LOT of undiagnosed kids that may be on the spectrum,,,, im not qualified to diagnosis but 20 years working in special education, i can usually spot them ,,, this is a lower income area, I suspect here a lot is undiagnosed.

The "Cluster" concept should not be divorced from it's orgin, which is "Cancer Cluster". The concept came about when researchers (in good faith) were looking for enviromental causes.

Now that most of the enviromental causation arguements* have not panned out, It would probably be better if the "cluster" term went away with them.

Considering how confusing the DX critera is in general, you could get a false positive/negative pretty much anywhere, even with good controls and good faith efforts.

* Before Tyri0n jumps in, I am aware of his support for external enviromental causes, I said "most".

What else would you call it?


Read the articles that I provided links to. The researchers were also looking for environmental causes.

Well, does the tech sector skew the gender ratio? That's an irritating thing about Austin. Not that I haven't dated here, but it's still unpleasant, as there are way too many dudes. Also, I'm not a tech aspie.

Not really, no.

What skews everything is the current sky high price of real estate values, including women's attitudes. Vancouver women are increasingly known for being rather stuck up and picky when it comes to men - wanting their guy to make some serious $$ so they can live in an expensive part of town and enjoy a life of luxury. They want $100-150K/year salary & a Masters Degree level education + looks etc as their perfect man. http://www.theprovince.com/life/Perfect ... story.html

But that's not all of them, and there are plenty of more down to earth, fit & attractive, women in certain parts of the suburbs depending on what your type is. It's more so women who live *IN* Vancouver, particularly the expensive neighbourhoods, that are very quickly gaining a reputation for putting $$ above all else.

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Well, putting $$ high won't hurt me in a few years (hopefully). Putting personality high may always do so.

They are both silly and shallow. Women being picky is not a terrible thing. I don't really like music or college sports though, so that's a turnoff about Austin and what the women (and men) are into. I like doing active things myself but don't care to watch it on TV unless it's pro football, soccer, or UFC. The main thing is too many dudes is pretty annoying when trying to date. I have known girls in Austin who dated 3 guys simultaneously. lol

As long as a place is a true autism cluster and not just a tech area, I'd consider it as a factor when deciding where to move.

Florida.. I've googled results for Broward County coming up as having a cluster.

I can definitely see cases where the diagnosis goes unreported due to demographics, or kids that are lower income and thus don't make it to various research polls and data.

These are that have clusters may be near airports, toxins, or other environmental possible pollutions, that could factor into the Autism cause.
(IMO i think there is more than one cause, that are several different things).

In USA i think its a big problem when lower income families don't have the finances needed for a diagnosis; perhaps they don't have the knowledge of Autism, and thus these children are left out of polls, surveys and other data.

There was an article out in the past stating that Hispanic children in Texas are the group of children that LEAST showed Autism.
Yet it's most likely that the parents possibly didn't have the insurance or other means to get their children a diagnosis. Also in a lot of hispanic culture, machismo is prominent and it's possible the children assimilated to a degree and would get missed for the spectrum either way. Later they realized Hispanics as like everyone else are just as likely to get Autism.

However being that these clusters exist, it's an interesting common denominator

I do! Sorta....But one of them was in a movie! He doesn't really talk much, and mainly uses typing to communicate, but you know, he's an awesome guy!

I hope to say ditto that with the $ factor in a few years, as I've already done the academic education thing.. and currently consider myself more of a student of myself than anything else, really. Once I learn to manage all of this ASD & related stuff a bit better I'll be able to get into the line(s) of work I want to be in that should dramatically improve my earnings. One day at a time for now. And from getting to know your posts, I doubt you're void of personality.

Plenty to do here w/o being into music & almost no one is into college sports here - college sports in Canada are less popular than T-ball, never mind little league. And no one watches high school sports besides a couple classmates, ever. We have a handful of professional sports teams here & this is a big hockey town, but not everyone's into it. I couldn't care less about any team sports, but love to go outside and be active. BC/Van has the fittest most active population in the country & the lowest smoking rate. Squamish is half way between Vansterdam & Whistler, and is the Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada - and it's F'n awesome for tons of different sports. It's NOT difficult to find active people here who don't care for professional sports, including many very active women. UFC is quite popular here, too. And we do have a pro soccer team. And a CFL football team.

IMO, and I've been here my whole life & worked many different jobs, gone to a couple different schools, gotten to know almost every area due to doing outside sales for about 5 years.. this place is a true cluster vs. just a tech centre. It's the magic of the surroundings here that draws & keeps non-NT's here. There's a reason our licence plates say "Beautiful British Columbia," on them. Yeah we have some nerd employers in town, but there is no single dominant industry like some one horse towns that are just full of cookie cutter geeks. This place is the most diverse city I've ever been to. I've travelled the Western 1/2 of Canada & Western 1/3-1/2 of the USA all the way down to Tijuana. Plenty of homogenous cities/towns in Canada & the USA, but not here at home sweet home.

Mmmh, Autism Clusters©... (Sorry...)