Latvia leads the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as the country with the highest actual percentage of vision loss at 24.6% of the population.1
That’s according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Vision Atlas, a compilation of data and interactive maps detailing eye health around the world,2 which also shows that 0.4% of Latvians are blind.
It also says that, based on the latest data available from each country:
At home in Australia, around 5.3% of the of the population experience vision loss.
– IAPB, 2020
There are many different factors that influence eye health, so we decided to gather the data on various eye health indicators for countries in the OECD. We used the latest available information published within the last 10 years to create this table.
Take a look at the data below and see how your country stacks up!
As you can see from the data, no single country takes the title of worst eyesight across all the indicators. For instance, while Latvia has the highest prevalence of vision loss, Italy has the highest rate of blindness at 0.8% of the population.1 Belgium also has the highest percentage of glasses wearers in the OECD (based on the available data) at 70% of the population.3
Likewise, there isn’t one country that stands out as having the best eyesight, either. Israel and the US both tie in first place for the lowest crude prevalence of vision loss at five per cent of their populations each,1 and Estonia comes out on top with the lowest rate of glasses use in the OECD at 20% of their people.
Another interesting point from the data is that the UK has the lowest number of ophthalmologists per million people out of the OECD countries, at 22 per million.3 However, the UK has seen an ophthalmologist shortage in recent years, caused by an increase in demand due to an ageing population.4
South Korea and Denmark would appear to be at the opposite end of the scale. With 585.1 and 529 optometrists per million of the population respectively, these two countries are miles ahead of the rest of the OECD;1,3 the closest ratio of optometrists to people after those two countries is in Italy, where they have 364 of the eye health professionals per million people in their population.3
Vision loss and impairment is a growing problem around the world, not just in the OECD. According to the IAPB, around 1.1 billion people worldwide have vision loss – and that number is predicted to rise to 1.7 billion by 2050.5
Vision impairment affects 2.2 billion people worldwide, and almost half of these cases were preventable or have not yet been treated.6 The leading causes of vision impairment globally include:
Your vision is an important part of your health, so taking good care of your eyes is a sensible thing to do. Here are some tips, tricks and ways you can maintain your eye health.
After consultation with reputable eye health organisations and institutions (including the Australian College of Optometry, Fred Hollows Foundation and Queensland Eye Institute), these eye health indicators were chosen to be included in the data collation as they consisted of the most meaningful data available to us.
The crude prevalence (actual percentage) of all four vision loss levels in a country’s population: near, mild, mod-severe and blindness.12
The crude prevalence (actual percentage) of blindness within a country’s population.12
The percentage of a country’s population that wears glasses.
The percentage of a country’s population that wears contact lenses. These numbers can overlap with the portion of the population who wear glasses, as some people may use more than one vision correction aid.13
The number of optometrists (responsible for eye examinations and treatment of eye health problems)14 per million people, which is also known as the density.15
The number of ophthalmologists (who deal with the medical side of eye health, including surgery, medicine and prescriptions)16 per million people.15
The number of cataract surgeries per million people in a year is known as the cataract surgery rate (CSR) and measures the quantity of cataract services.17
1 Bourne R, Steinmetz J, Flaxman S, et al., Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet Glob Health. 2020. Accessed via the IAPB Vision Atlas (https://www.iapb.org/learn/vision-atlas). Accessed February 2021.
2 IAPB Vision Atlas – About: The IAPB Vision Atlas. Accessed March 2021.
3 European Council Optometry and Optics – ECOO Blue Book 2020. Published October 2020. Accessed January 2021.
4 The Royal College of Ophthalmologists – New RCOphth Workforce Census illustrates the severe shortage of eye doctors in the UK. Published January 2019. Accessed March 2021.
5 IAPB – Updated Vision Atlas shows 1.1 billion people have vision loss. Published October 2020. Accessed March 2021.
6 WHO – Blindness and vision impairment. Published February 2021. Accessed March 2021.
7 The Fred Hollows Foundation – Glossary of eye conditions. Accessed March 2021.
8 UVA Health – Corneal Opacity. Accessed March 2021.
9 Title: Eye care. Published by: healthdirect. Last reviewed: December 2019. Accessed: March 2021.
10 Courtesy: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (NEI/NIH) – Keep Your Eyes Healthy. Last updated March 2020. Accessed March 2021.
11 Title: Eye tests. Published by: healthdirect. Last reviewed: April 2020. Accessed: March 2021.
12 IAPB Vision Atlas – About: Definitions. Accessed March 2021.
13 The Vision Council – VisionWatch Market Update. By Steve Kodey. Published January 2021. Accessed February 2021.
14 Better Health Channel – Eye care – optometrists. Last reviewed April 2015. Accessed March 2021.
15 Wiley Online Library – The number of optometrists is inversely correlated with blindness in OECD countries. By Einat Shneor, Michal Isaacson, Ariela Gordon‐Shaag. Published October 2020. Accessed January 2021.
16 Title: What does an ophthalmologist do? Published by: healthdirect. Last reviewed: September 2020. Accessed: March 2021.
17 US National Library of Medicine: Community Eye Health Journal – Cataract surgical rates. Published 2017. Accessed March 2021.
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