Who has the best and worst eyesight in the OECD?

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!

So, who has the worst eyesight?

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

A global problem

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:

• Uncorrected refractive errors. A refractive error is when your eye’s shape impedes light on your retina due to a disorder.⁷ Such disorders can include myopia (short sight) and hyperopia (long sight). Refractive errors can be corrected through surgery and aids like glasses and contacts.
• Cataract. A cataract occurs when your eye’s lens becomes cloudy in one or both eyes, which leads to less light entering your eye and therefore blurred vision.⁷ The condition is brought on by the protein in your eye changing. It’s commonly thought of as age-related (although cataracts can also be caused by diseases like diabetes, as well as eye injuries and medications).
• Age-related macular degeneration. The macular, located in the retina, is responsible for providing clear, central vision.⁷ However, it can break down and degenerate over time with age. When your macular degenerates, the centre of your field of vision becomes blurred or even disappears entirely.
• Glaucoma. Glaucoma manifests as pressure on your eye, which causes damage to your retina and optic nerve, which in turn leads to a progressive loss of your peripheral vision.⁷ There are several different types of glaucoma, and they can be difficult to detect and treat. Still, it’s thought that ocular hypertension (when the pressure inside the eye is abnormally high) can be an early indicator that you may develop glaucoma.
• Diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes can cause vision loss through damage to your retina.⁷ Your retina’s blood vessels can be affected by elevated blood sugar levels, which can cause the vessels to bleed or leak and thus impacting the retina – and reducing your vision.
• Corneal opacity. When the cornea (the transparent front on the eyeball) is scarred, it loses its transparency and becomes opaque, preventing light from entering the eye.⁸ It can be caused by things like eye swelling, injuries, corneal scratches or infections.
• Trachoma. Trachoma is a bacterial infection that causes scarring and inflammation underneath your eyelids.⁷ Scarring can build up over time if you frequently contract trachoma infections, and it can cause your eyelids to turn inwards and rub the cornea with the eyelashes. This continued rubbing can cause the cornea to become clouded from the scars and impair your vision, if not lose it entirely.