Statistics about blindness and eye disease
Worldwide
- 285 million people are visually impaired
- Of the 285 million, 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision
- 1.4 million children under the age of 15 are blind
- More than 90% of the world’s visually impaired people live in low income countries
- Cataract is the leading cause of blindness
- Age-related causes of visual impairment and blindness are increasing, as is blindness due to uncontrolled diabetes
Every 5 seconds one person
in the world goes blind.
United Kingdom
- 1.8 million people are visually impaired
- Over 360,000 people are registered blind or visually impaired
- Age-related macular degeneration (40%), glaucoma (13%) and diabetic retinopathy (8%) are the three most common causes of visual impairment of those registered as visually impaired
- 25,000 children under the age of 16 are visually impaired
- By the age of 65, 1 in 6 will become blind or partially sighted
Every day around 100 people
in the UK start to lose their sight.