Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics 2021 to 2022

Data on people with and without learning disabilities was collected from an average of 57% of GP practices in England for the years 2017-18 to 2021-22, to identify potential differences in treatment, health status and outcomes of people with learning disabilities compared to the rest of the population.

55.7% of patients registered in England in 2021-22 were included in this publication compared to 59.2% in 2017-18.

Fig 1: Percentage of patients included in this publication by Sub Integrated Care Board Location, 2021-22

Overall, 0.5% (177,341) of the patients included in this publication were listed on their GP practices Learning Disabilities Register in 2021-22. 

The percentage of patients with a learning disability who have also been diagnosed with autism increased steadily from 21.4% in 2017-18 to 30.7% in 2021-22, a rise of 9.3 percentage points. Diagnoses of autism in patients without a learning disability rose by 0.3  percentage points (0.5% in 2017-18 to 0.9%  in 2021-22) over the same period.

In 2017-18 patients with a learning disability were 25 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than those without a learning disability. This fell to 21 times more likely in 2021-22.

The recorded prevalence of autism is greatest in  young males in both patients with learning disabilities (figure 4) and patients without learning disabilities (figure 5).