New NHS England data has estimated that almost 2.5m people in England are likely to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some degree of salt-pinching is needed here as figures were developed using pre-existing estimates from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which suggests that around three to four per cent of adults and five per cent of children and young people have ADHD.
The new data also suggests that more than half a million people (549,000) in England were waiting for an ADHD assessment at the end of March 2025. This is up from 416,000 a year earlier at the end of March 2024, so we can probably expect further “villain of the week” headlines about how the “worried well” are wasting NHS resources and how “everyone wants a diagnosis” these days.
