Britain's National Health Services says it has published the first major study of adults living with autism.

The report, entitled "Autism Spectrum Disorders in adults living in households throughout England 2007" was written by a team led by University of Leicester Professor Terry Brugha, a consultant psychiatrist with the NHS.

"This ground-breaking study shows for the first time an estimate of how many adults are living with autism spectrum disorders in England," the NHS said in a statement. "The study into the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among adults shows that one in every 100 adults living in households has the condition -- broadly the same rate as that cited for children."

Officials said the report is the first attempt to find and count adults in the community with an autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger syndrome.

The researchers found, among other things, people who were single were more likely to be assessed with an autism spectrum disorder than other marital statuses and, among men, the prevalence of an autism spectrum disorder was lower among those with a university degree than among those with no university education.

The report is available at http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/asdpsychiatricmorbidity07.