There is little doubt that you or someone close to you are or will be impacted by autism. There should be clear concern for the next generation of children if we cannot find a way to reduce the rate of its acceleration. I personally know several young parents with more than once child having autism.
The reported current rate of autism varies by source, but the most often quoted recent number is around one occurrence in 166 births. Some California sources report one in 50. Scary.
The variables are numerous for what determines "Autism" or "Asbergers Syndrome" (basically high-functioning autism). However, there is no debate that the rates are increasing rapidly and can no longer be written off to better diagnostics or more accurate reporting.
What is curious is that the high rate of increase is relatively uniform beyond America. Canada, Britain, Iceland, and Japan in some cases even have worse rates that the US.