BLINDNESS IN THE WORLD

KEY FACTS

• About 314 million people are visually impaired worldwide, 45 million of them are blind.
• Most people with visual impairment are older, and females are more at risk at every age, in every part of the world.
• About 87% of the world's visually impaired live in developing countries.
• The number of people blinded by infectious diseases has been greatly reduced, but age-related impairment is increasing.
• Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness globally, except in the most developed countries.
• Correction of refractive errors could give normal vision to more than 12 million children (ages five to 15).
• About 85% of all visual impairment is avoidable globally.

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