Glaucoma affects roughly 80 million people worldwide over the age of 40, with a global prevalence of about 2.8%. That makes it one of the most common causes of irreversible vision loss, responsible for blindness in an estimated 3.6 million people as of 2020. But those headline numbers only tell part of the story. Your actual risk depends heavily on your age, ethnicity, and where you live.
Overall Prevalence by the Numbers
Among adults aged 40 and older, about 3 in every 100 have open-angle glaucoma, the most common form. That 2.8% global rate is expected to climb to 3.5% by 2060, with the total number of affected people more than doubling to nearly 187 million. Population aging is the main driver: as more people live into their 70s and 80s worldwide, the pool of people at risk keeps expanding. An earlier projection estimated 112 million cases by 2040, and more recent models suggest even that number may be conservative.
How Risk Increases With Age
Glaucoma is rare in younger adults and becomes dramatically more common with each passing decade. Population data from South Asia illustrates the pattern clearly. Among people in their 40s, the prevalence sits around 0.8%, meaning fewer than 1 in 100. By ages 60 to 69, it rises to about 2.5%. And among those 80 and older, roughly 7.5% have glaucoma, nearly ten times the rate of middle-aged adults.
This steep age curve is why most screening recommendations focus on people over 40. The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends a baseline comprehensive eye exam at age 40, with follow-up frequency based on your individual risk factors.
Ethnicity and Glaucoma Risk
Race and ethnicity are among the strongest predictors of glaucoma. A large multicenter study in Brazil measured prevalence across racial groups and found striking differences: 5.8% of Black participants had glaucoma compared with 2.4% of White participants. Mixed-race individuals fell in between at 3.8%, and Asian participants had a rate of 3.5%.
After adjusting for age, Black individuals were 175% more likely to have glaucoma than White individuals, and mixed-race individuals were 85% more likely. These disparities hold up across studies conducted in different countries and likely reflect a combination of genetic susceptibility, differences in eye anatomy, and unequal access to early detection.
The type of glaucoma also varies by population. In Asian countries, angle-closure glaucoma (where the drainage channel in the eye is physically blocked) is more than twice as common relative to open-angle glaucoma compared to other regions. Globally, though, open-angle glaucoma remains the dominant form.
Where Glaucoma Hits Hardest
The burden of glaucoma is not spread evenly across the globe. Western sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa/the Middle East carry the highest disease burden by a wide margin. At the country level, Mali, Ethiopia, and Botswana have the highest rates of disability from glaucoma. On the other end of the spectrum, Central Europe, high-income North America, and Australasia have the lowest burden, with countries like Estonia and Taiwan reporting minimal impact.
These gaps reflect more than just biology. In wealthier countries with robust healthcare systems, glaucoma is typically caught earlier and managed before significant vision loss occurs. In lower-income regions, people often have no access to eye exams, meaning the disease progresses silently until damage is severe.
More Than Half of Cases Go Undetected
Perhaps the most important number about glaucoma is this one: globally, more than half of all cases are undiagnosed. A systematic review covering nearly 190,000 participants across 55 population-based studies found that undetected glaucoma is the norm, not the exception, in every geographic region studied. In 2020, an estimated 44 million cases of open-angle glaucoma were going undetected, with about 77% of those in Africa and Asia.
The reason is that glaucoma typically causes no pain and no noticeable symptoms until it has already destroyed a significant portion of the optic nerve. Peripheral vision erodes so gradually that most people compensate without realizing anything is wrong. By the time central vision is affected, the damage is permanent. Countries with lower levels of development showed significantly higher rates of undetected disease, largely because routine eye screening is unavailable or unaffordable.
Even in high-income countries, undetected glaucoma is common. Many people skip eye exams if they feel their vision is fine, and standard vision tests (like reading an eye chart) do not detect glaucoma. Diagnosis requires specific testing of eye pressure, the optic nerve, and the visual field.
Who Should Be Screened
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force currently states there isn’t enough evidence to recommend universal glaucoma screening for all adults. That doesn’t mean screening is useless. It means the task force hasn’t found sufficient data to prove that population-wide screening programs improve long-term outcomes. The American Academy of Ophthalmology takes a more proactive stance, recommending a comprehensive eye exam at age 40 for everyone, with follow-up intervals tailored to your risk profile.
Your risk is higher if you are over 60, have a family history of glaucoma, are of African or Hispanic descent, have high eye pressure, are very nearsighted, or have diabetes. If any of these apply, more frequent exams (every one to two years) make sense even before age 60. Since glaucoma can only be caught through a targeted eye exam and since most people with the disease don’t know they have it, regular screening remains the only reliable way to catch it before irreversible damage sets in.