Study: Rise in ADHD Diagnoses Reflects Greater Education, Not Prevalence

June 10, 2025ADHD prevalence in adults and children remains stable, suggesting that the steady increase in new ADHD diagnoses does not indicate an “epidemic” but improved research and diagnostic tools, according to a new study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.

1The systematic review, led by a team of researchers from King’s College London, found no significant increase in ADHD prevalence rates among children and adults from 2020 to 2024 compared to earlier time periods.

ADHD evaluations did increase during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, however resulting diagnoses did not change the overall prevalence of ADHD in the population, the study found.“Prevalence refers to the overall occurrence of ADHD in the population at a particular point in time,” Russell Barkley, Ph.D., a leading authority on ADHD, explained on his YouTube channel. “Incidence refers to the occurrences of newly identified ADHD cases within a specific period.

There can be a dramatic difference between prevalence and incidence, where there is no change in prevalence but a rise in incidence because new cases of ADHD are already present.