Majority in Britain now 'self-identify' as neurodivergent - as expert warns of risks in diagnosing 'eccentric' personalities

4 May 2025, 11:18 | Updated: 4 May 2025, 11:31

A majority of Britons now 'self-identify' as neurodivergent - as psychologist warns of risks in diagnosing 'eccentric' personalities.

An increasing number of people across the UK consider themselves to have a condition such as autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia - according to claims made by a leading psychologist.

Experts have linked the rise in self-diagnosis and the pursuit of medical diagnoses among Britons to greater tolerance and understanding of neurodivergence.

In 2021, a study found a 787% increase in the number of diagnoses between 1998 and 2018 in the UK.

Meanwhile, the study found the estimated number of children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased from one in 2,500 children 80 years ago to one in 36.

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Francesca Happé, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, told The Telegraph: “There’s a lot more tolerance, which is good - particularly among my children’s generation, who are late teens and early adults, where people are very happy to say ‘I’m dyslexic’, ‘I’m ADHD.”

However, Ms Happé - who is dyslexic herself - warned of the risks of categorising behaviour that was once perceived as "a bit of eccentricity" with a medical diagnosis.

She said: “Most of the science around conditions like ADHD and autism suggest they are on a continuum and where you put the boundary is a clinical judgment.

"But whether we have now come too far down the dimension to something we would have called a personality type — or a bit of eccentricity — and we are now giving that a medical term, whether that’s helpful or not is a discussion we need to have.”

An increasing number of well-known figures have spoken openly in recent years about being on the autism spectrum - including television presenter Chris Packham, the actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, and actress Daryl Hannah.

Ms Happé told the BBC's The Autism Curve programme: "An increasing number of people are choosing to self-identify [as neurodivergent] without seeking a diagnosis. That is going to change things, because we may well already be at a point where there are more neurodivergent self-identified people than neurotypical people.

“Once you take autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and all the other ways that you can developmentally be different from the typical, you actually don’t get many typical people left. That is going to change society, but not in a bad way.”

Ms Happé believes a diagnosis can be beneficial for some, with many schools unable to receive additional funding to support students with special educational needs unless the students in question have a diagnosis.

One unnamed clinician is quoted in the programme saying: "I’d call a child a zebra if it got them the services they needed.”

Ms Happé also explained that a diagnosis can help people communicate their needs in social settings.

She added: “You see people coming in for a first diagnosis of autism in their seventies. They have often had a good job that worked to their strengths and maybe a supportive partner who was their social brain, and one of those things gives, such as the partner dies or they retire, and [they] become isolated.

"The other route is a grandchild gets diagnosed and everyone in the family starts reading around autism and they go: ‘Oh, that’s grandad too.’"