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Approximately 314 million
people worldwide live with low vision and blindness.
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Of these, 45 million people are
blind and 269 million have low vision.
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Low vision of 145 million
people is due to uncorrected refractive errors and could be
restored with eye glasses.
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80%
of blindness is avoidable - i.e. readily treatable and/or
preventable.
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90%
of blind people live in low-income countries.
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An estimated 1.4 million children
under the age of 15 are blind worldwide.
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In some developing countries, up to 60%
of children die within a year of becoming blind, either from
the condition that caused the blindness (such as measles and
vitamin A deficiency) or from inadequate care as families
affected by poverty struggle to look after a disabled child.
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Blindness is both a cause and a result of
poverty. Adults and children living in poverty are more
likely to suffer from malnutrition, poor water quality and
inadequate sanitation. This places them at much higher risk
of contracting eye diseases.
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Around three-quarters of the world’s
blind children live in developing countries in
Africa and Asia.
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The annual global economic impact of
blindness is estimated at US$45 billion.
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Women face a significantly greater risk of
vision loss than men.
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Nearly two thirds of blind people worldwide
are women & girls.
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About 28000 new cases of cataract are
reported everyday worldwide.
