What countries are the most aspie-friendly?

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Like, if I'm planning to move out due to being s**t here, where should I go if I want to lead a happy life?

Wales is a good choice. Rural, low crime rates, good autism support.

Jason.

Where are you?

Belgium.

You'd probably think Canada would be a good place, but on Cape Breton Island where I live things are more isolated from the rest of the country and the world. People go on forever about the scenic natural beauty and but it's not so great when there's hardly anything to do or places to go for someone with special interests. In fact it is utterly BORING. I wasn't diagnosed until my late twenties and could be the only Cape Bretoner who has for all I know. Everything here is at least 50 years behind everywhere else, almost everyone I knew as a kid had to leave to find work, I can't go anywhere that's halfway-decent without transportation and I can't even move away because I don't drive and can't afford a car, there's no train any more and I'm afraid to go NEAR a plane. And I can't afford it anyway. And I don't to be too far from my parents. On the plus side there isn't much crime, not many public places that will overload your senses (except on holidays of course) and people in general here are friendlier and more tolerant, or so the tourists in the summer say anyway. A lot of people here just go somewhere to get drunk because there's nothing else to do. I do not drink alcohol. Most days now I spend here in front of my computer because there is no place for me to go or anything else to do... or at anything I feel like doing, anyway. I wish I were better at entertaining myself the way I was when I was a kid. All you had to do was give a pile of drawing paper and a pen or pencil and I'd spend hours drawing away. But I'm off-topic as usual now, so I should stop. Good luck finding a decent place to live (can there actually BE one?).

I live in the UK. I think it's as good a place as anywhere. People are generally very accepting here, and there's as much stigma attached to discrimination of any sort as there is to autism. I don't think anywhere's perfect though.

Well, no matter where you go, being happy is only up to you.

Not the UK, that's for sure. Here you're not even allowed to look shy in public, otherwise people hate you for it; will pick on you, single you out, make you feel uncomfortable and will even humiliate you. Also the government thinks everybody's got the skills and confidence to do any job in the world.

Not the US, our whole culture consists of superficial small talk, phony friendliness and anti-intellectualism.

EDIT: K, before someone gets mad, that is hyperbole.

That's the SAD talking, on the whole the UK is a pretty safe tolerant place. We have a good free health service and a welfare system. The government is really pushing the under 24s to get into education, employment or training. With any welfare system, you do need to work with the system rather than fight it.

Jason

Perhaps it's just where you live that's a kip, not the whole country.

Japan would be the best place since it's the quietest.

If it weren't for the economy, I would actually recommend the US. There are some very strange areas that can be very accepting of off-beat people. You have to live in the right place, but there are some really good areas for the weird. That said, some areas are absolutely terrible, and the economy is kind of a mess, which only exacerbates the problems aspies have getting and holding jobs.

I was about ready to post this same thing, and I live in the US.

I would say that anywhere you go will be difficult as people do have certain cultural norms for socialization everywhere in the world. I would try to stay in a Western style democratic country as other places tend to be a lot less tolerant and stable. Frankly though, unless you have an unstable government in your native land, I would just stay there and find a location more suited to your way of being. You have a knowledge of the local culture that, although lacking in many areas, is still superior to that which you would have in a foreign country. You know the language and at least some of the customs, so you don't have to start from scratch. I know it's not what you want to hear. You want it to be better somewhere else, but the truth is that it likely won't be.

Well I don't know where is the best but I can tell you where is the worst: Philippines.