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WHO: Global patterns of visual impairment changing
More than 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries, and for every blind person in the world there are an average of 3.4 people who have low vision, according to recent statistics from the World Health Organization.
The new figures, based on 2002 population figures, show significant changes from the last estimates done in the 1990s, according to the WHO
Although people 50 years old or older represent only 19% of the world’s population, they account for 82% of all people who are blind, the WHO reports. In every region of the world, and at all ages, women have a significantly higher risk of visual impairment than men, the report states.
Broken out by territory, 45.1 million people in the WHO Southeast Asia region are visually impaired, 41.8 million in the Western Pacific region, 26.5 million in the African region, 16.5 million in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and 15.5 million each in the American and European regions.
The WHO estimates that up to 75% of blindness worldwide is preventable.