actually according to the CDC's latest research, it's at least 1 in 36. but this study was only done with diagnosed 8 year olds, whereas a lot of people do not receive a diagnosis until teens or adulthood, and many more do not receive an official diagnosis due to structural barriers like systematic racism or sexism, or do not want a diagnosis because of discrimination. as a developmental disability social worker, i think autism is way more common than people think. i wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 5 or 10% of the population. and a lot of autistic people tend to flock to groups like online fandom or indie gaming, so even more common to find autistic people in those groups. i started playing a d&d game with strangers where i was the only one with a diagnosis and then it turned out all 6 of us were autistic except the dm who has adhd. it's a lot more common than people give credit for!