Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2023/4

NHS England is revising the autism chapter of the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2023/24 following further quality assurance of the survey data. We expect to publish the revised chapter in the autumn. The autism findings were originally withdrawn on 18 May 2026.

The review first identified a data error that affected the values reported in the 2023/4 APMS publication. Further investigation then identified limitations in the validity of the autism assessments in the 2023/4 survey, that was not an issue in previous years of the survey. As a result, the values are not sufficiently robust to support a reliable estimate of autism prevalence among adults in 2023/24.

The revised chapter will explain the methodological challenges of measuring autism in a large-scale population survey. This includes how assessment data collected through survey methods should be interpreted, and what the findings can and cannot show. NHS England is taking this approach to ensure the publication is transparent, proportionate, aligned with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and classified as statistics in development.