Time trends in reported autism spectrum disorders in Israel, 1986-2005.

Gal et al. (2012) counted every child with an autism diagnosis in Israel’s national registry. They tracked births from 1986 through 2003 to see if numbers changed over time.

Autism prevalence tripled across those years. By 2003, about six boys and one girl per 1,000 were listed in the registry.

Dinstein et al. (2024) kept counting and found the numbers almost doubled again between 2017 and 2021. The climb keeps going.

Davidovitch et al. (2013) gave a 2010 snapshot: Israeli records still showed only half the 1 % rate seen in U.S. reports. The registry counts are real, but they miss mild cases.

May et al. (2018) saw the same male-heavy pattern in Australia, yet the boy-to-girl gap is slowly shrinking as more girls get recognized later.

If you write reports or plan services in Israel, expect caseloads to keep rising. Track new referrals each quarter and reserve early-intervention slots ahead of demand. When you see a low prevalence figure, ask whether mild or female cases might be under-registered.