Eye Diseases
Visual Impairment and Blindness
Refractive Errors
Eye Injuries
Ophthalmologists
Eye Diseases
Q: How many people in the United States have cataracts?
A: Cataracts affect more than 20.5 million Americans age 40 and older, and 6.1 million Americans have had cataract surgery.[1]
Q: How many people in the United States have glaucoma?
A: Glaucoma affects about 3 million Americans. An estimated 50% of people with the disease are undiagnosed.[2]
Q: How many people in the United States have age-related macular degeneration (AMD)?
A: An estimated 1.5 million Americans have late AMD, the vision threatening form of AMD. An estimated 18.3 million Americans have early AMD.[3]
Prevalence of AMD increases with age. For people age 80 and older, approximately 3 in 10 Americans have early AMD and 1 in 10 have late AMD.[4]
Q: How many people in the United States have diabetic retinopathy?
A: Diabetic retinopathy affects nearly 9.6 million Americans. Approximately 1 in 4 Americans ages 40 and older with diabetes have diabetic retinopathy, a number that has more than doubled since 2004. [5]
The number of people in the United States with diabetes is increasing. More than 38.4 million Americans have diabetes. About 23% of those with diabetes—8.7 million Americans—do not know they have the disease.[6]
Q: How many people in the United States have dry eye?
A: Dry eye affects nearly 16 million Americans.[7]
The prevalence of dry eye syndrome increases with age. An estimated 3.2 million women age 50 and over and 1.68 million men age 50 and over are affected by dry eye syndrome.[8]
Q: How many intravitreal injections are administered in the United States annually?
A: The estimated number of intravitreal injections in the United States used to prevent vision loss from macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other retinal diseases is 7 million annually.[9]
How many corneal transplants are performed in the United States annually?
A: More than 60,000 corneal transplants are performed in the United States every year. Since 1961, more than 2 million men, women and children worldwide have had their sight restored through a corneal transplant.[10]
Q: How many people in the United States get eye infections each year?
A: Nearly a million eye infections that require a trip to the doctor or hospital happen each year, many of them related to contact lens use.[11]
Visual Impairment and Blindness
Q: How many people in the United States are legally blind?
A: Nearly 1.1 million Americans are legally blind.[12] (Defined as best-corrected visual acuity worse than or equal to 20/200 in the better-seeing eye.)
Q: How many people in the United States have low vision?
A: More than 7 million Americans have low vision.[13] (Defined as best-corrected visual acuity worse than or equal to 20/40 in the better-seeing eye; this number does include those who are legally blind.)
Q: How prevalent is color blindness in the United States?
A: It is estimated that 8% of males and less than 1% of females have color vision problems. [14]
Refractive Errors
Q: How many people in the United States have myopia (nearsightedness)?
A: Myopia is on the rise worldwide. (Myopia defined as 1.0 diopters or more.) The number of Americans who are nearsighted has nearly doubled over the last 50 years to about 41.6 percent. [15]
Q: How many people in the United States have hyperopia (farsightedness)?
A: Nearly 14 million Americans age 40 and older are hyperopic, or 10% of that population.[16] (Hyperopia defined as 3.0 diopters or more.)
Q: How common is astigmatism in the United States?
A: This refractive error occurs in about 1 in 3 people and may occur in combination with near- or farsightedness. It causes blurry vision and is due to the cornea being less than perfectly rounded.[17]
Q: How many Americans have a refractive error?
A: More than 105 million Americans have a refractive error.[18]
Q: How many people wear contact lenses in the United States?
A: Approximately 45 million Americans wear contact lenses.[19]
Q: How many refractive surgical procedures (such as LASIK and PRK) are performed annually in the United States?
A: Approximately 800,000 procedures are performed per year.[20]
Eye Injuries
Q: How many people in the United States suffer eye injuries each year?
A: Each year an estimated 2.5 million eye injuries occur in the United States.[21] Using protective eyewear can prevent 90% of all eye injuries.[22]
Q: Who is most likely to be injured?
A: Nearly 35% of all eye injuries occur in people 18 to 45 years of age.[21]
Q: Where do most eye injuries occur?
Accidents involving common household products cause 125,000 eye injuries each year.[23]
More than 70,000 people injure their eyes at work every year.[24]
Ophthalmologists
Q: How many ophthalmologists are there in the United States?
A: There are about 18,000 ophthalmologists in the United States.[25]
Q: How many ophthalmologists are there worldwide (including the United States)?
A: There are approximately 232,000 ophthalmologists worldwide.[26]
[25] American Academy of Ophthalmology