The need for vision correction, whether through spectacles, contact lenses, or surgical intervention, is widespread across all populations and age groups. For statistical purposes, “vision correction” includes any method used to compensate for refractive errors in the eye. Understanding the percentage of people who wear glasses reflects the global need for clear sight.
Global Prevalence of Vision Correction
The number of people requiring vision correction worldwide reflects a massive global health need. Current estimates suggest that approximately 4 billion individuals across the globe wear prescription glasses, representing roughly 57% of the total world population.
The percentage of people who need glasses is higher than those who actually wear them. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment. About half of these cases are due to uncorrected refractive errors that could be easily treated with glasses.
Global effective refractive error coverage (eREC), which measures the percentage of people who need correction and actually have it, stands at just under 66%. This means hundreds of millions of people live with correctable blurry vision because they lack access to an eye exam and spectacles.
Primary Causes for Needing Corrective Lenses
The fundamental reason so many people wear glasses stems from common physiological irregularities known as refractive errors. These errors occur when the eye is unable to focus light precisely onto the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The four main types of refractive errors account for the vast majority of vision correction needs.
Myopia, or nearsightedness, is one of the most common issues and occurs when the eyeball grows too long or the cornea is too steeply curved. This causes incoming light to focus in front of the retina, making distant objects appear blurry while close-up vision remains relatively clear. Conversely, hyperopia, or farsightedness, happens when the eyeball is too short or the cornea is too flat. For people with hyperopia, light focuses behind the retina, which causes nearby objects to appear blurry.
Astigmatism often co-exists with these other conditions and is caused by an irregularly shaped cornea or lens. Instead of being perfectly spherical, the front surface of the eye is shaped more like a football, creating multiple focal points. This irregularity results in distorted or blurred vision at all distances.
The largest single driver of corrective lens usage in adults is presbyopia, a condition affecting near vision that is simply a normal part of aging. Beginning around age 40, the eye’s natural crystalline lens becomes less flexible and gradually hardens. This loss of elasticity impairs the lens’s ability to change shape and focus on close-up tasks like reading small print. Because this is a universal biological process, nearly everyone will experience some degree of presbyopia.
Demographic Variations in Usage
The prevalence of wearing glasses varies across different age groups and geographic regions. The need for correction is lowest in young children, though it still affects a significant portion of this population, with over 25% of children between the ages of 2 and 17 in the US wearing corrective lenses. This childhood rate rises sharply with age, reflecting the progression of refractive errors like myopia.
The onset of presbyopia around the age of 40 marks a major inflection point, causing the percentage of people wearing correction to surge. While around 59% of adults aged 25 to 39 may wear glasses, that figure jumps to over 90% for individuals between 65 and 75 years old. This near-universal requirement for reading glasses makes age the strongest demographic factor influencing vision correction use.
Geographic location and socioeconomic status also create significant variations in who wears glasses. In high-income areas, such as North America and Western Europe, the effective refractive error coverage is high, often reaching 83% to 85%. This contrasts sharply with low-income regions, where access is a major barrier; for example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, coverage rates drop to between 27% and 30%.
The prevalence of myopia among children and adolescents is also experiencing a surge, particularly in East Asia, where it is often referred to as an epidemic. In some East Asian countries, the rate of myopia in children is exceptionally high, with estimates reaching 86% in places like Japan. Global projections indicate that childhood myopia, currently affecting about 36% of children and adolescents, is expected to increase to nearly 40% by 2050. This rapid increase is linked to modern lifestyle factors, including high levels of near-work for educational purposes and reduced time spent outdoors.