1 in 20 schoolchildren autistic in Western Trust area new report confirms

The 2026 Department of Health report published on Thursday show that overall, the number of schoolchildren aged 4 to 15 registered as having autism stands at 4.8% in the Western Trust.

This equates to a total of 2,390 pupils from Primary 1 to Year 12 (Fifth Year) students in the current 2025/26 academic year.

The Western area figures are below the Northern Ireland average which stands at 6.2%. Overall across the north, figures extracted from the 2025/26 Northern Ireland School Census show that 18,472 school aged children had been diagnosed with autism.

There are more than twice as many male school pupils diagnosed with autism as female. Indeed, the figures show that 8.6% of school aged boys, or around one in 12, is autistic, compared to 3.7%, or one in every 27, girls.

The new Department of Health report entitled, ‘Prevalence of Autism (including Asperger Syndrome) in School Age Children in Northern Ireland’ by Deborah Kinghan-Adams and Chloe Pham was published on Thursday.

In Derry and the wider Western area, children living in urban areas were more likely to be registered as having autism at 5.4%, compared to 4.3% in rural areas, with similar situations across the other Trust areas.

Across the north, the prevalence of autism rose in terms of children living in areas with greater levels of poverty, including several areas identified in Derry. The rate of autism in the 10% most deprived areas was over 38% higher than the average.

Overall in the north, 81% of schoolchildren with autism had a Statement of Special Educational Needs, while 19% were identified as not having any special educational needs.

Since 2014, the Strategic Planning and Performance Group has run a routine monitoring process which identifies those children who have undergone an assessment for autism and those who have received a positive diagnosis.