The Garden of Education

How common is ADD?
The figure for ADD is typically given as 3-5 percent of the population.  The real figure is unknown and estimates vary between 1 and 20 percent or even more.  This is largely because the diagnostic criteria are so subjective: What is considered "clinically significant impairment" to one person might seem more like normal childhood behavior to someone else.  For example, in one English survey, only 0.09 percent of the children were found to be ADD.   But in an Israeli study, 28 percent of children were rated hyperactive by their teachers.  And in one U.S. study, teachers rated 50 percent of boys as restless, 43 percent of boys as having "short attention spans" and 43 percent of boys as "inattentive to what others say." ^{2
Diagnoses and medication rates can vary greatly within the U.S.  Gretchen Lefever, a pediatric psychologist who became concerned when she was suddenly inundated with ADD referrals, studied 30,000 grade-school students in two Virginia school districts.  Her findings, which were published in "The American Journal of Public Health", showed that 17% of white boys in the region were given medication for ADD while at school.  Other rates were 9% for African-American boys, 7% for white girls, and 3% for African-American girls.}