Asperger's/Autism Worldwide

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I've been wondering, what's the status of the Spectrum in non-English speaking countries? Does the diagnosis exist? How do different cultures treat such people? Are ASDs less prevalent elsewhere? Are they there but just unrecognized? Is it mainly a European thing like, say, Huntington's is? Is there any reliable data in any language? Can anyone recommend any books or websites with useful data?

I know in some other cultures that if a child is different at all they just except thats the way they are, different. But there is often no real support or understanding for these individuals.

It can't be largely European. It's gotta be worldwide. I think the particular dynamics of a culture either allow an aspie to blend in easier or be "outed" easier. In the Western world, the institution of Psychology is perhaps more entrenched, established, and more publicly disseminated than say in the East or in third world countries, so perhaps in the West, aspies are more likely to be "outed" and categorized.

I mean, I'm filipino. So unless I got the aspie gene from my European Spanish great-grandfather, then I'd probably come to the opinion that Aspergers is not localized in European genes and is a worldwide thing.

I wish I had data or be able to recommend literature, but I think it'll be awhile before there are significant research studies about Asperger's worldwide. The autism-sprectrum idea is only barely making a dent in the English-speaking mainstream--it's still largely misunderstood. Time will tell.

Germany uses the ICD for diagnosis. Which means we have AS, classical and atypical autism. Official numbers are about 10 people with classical autism out of 10.000 and considering the whole spectrum, the numbers are 25 people out of 10.000.

I'm supposed to be the only student with autism at my school and even Asperger's is, as it is elsewhere, still very unknown (compared to AD(H)D or borderline personality disorder). This is mostly due to the fact that there are no big campaigns of organisation such as Autism Speaks here (yet).

Personally, I'm assuming that the more progressive/centralized a society is, the harder it is for an "aspie", so it'll be more prevalent (prevalent in that the symptoms will manifest due to the nature of social/forced norms).

It'll be worldwide, but I doubt it'll be as noticeable in many areas compared to others.