Visual impairment in figures: the global map 2026

• 2.2 billion people with vision impairment worldwide (WHO, World Report on Vision)
• At least 1 billion cases could have been prevented or have yet to be addressed
• 90% live in low- and middle-income countries
• 43 million people are blind according to the latest Vision Atlas estimate (2024)
• 295 million have moderate to severe visual impairment
• 55% of blind people are women

• Uncorrected refractive errors (the most prevalent and most preventable cause)
• Cataracts, still the main cause of blindness in developing countries
• Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration
• Trachoma, eradicated in many countries but still present in rural African regions

More than 30 million people with visual impairment live in the EU. Spain has around 2 million, according to Eurostat and ONCE data. Of these, around 70,000 are legally blind ONCE affiliates.

Demographic ageing is the largest driver: by 2050, one in four Europeans will be over 65, the age from which the prevalence of visual impairment multiplies.

• 979,200 people with some form of visual impairment (INE 2020)
• 47,000 totally blind people according to ONCE
• 70% are over 65
• Only 22% of working-age people with visual impairment are employed

Population ageing will double these figures by 2050 according to WHO. Add to this the 'silent epidemic' of myopia: by 2050 half of the world's population is estimated to be myopic, which will increase cases of macular degeneration and retinal detachment.

Any service designed today must factor in this scenario: the accessible customer is not a marginal minority, it is the demographic trajectory of the next quarter century.

The market for accessibility products and services for visual impairment exceeds 18 billion dollars per year (Allied Market Research, 2024) and grows at 8% annually. Companies positioning themselves now will consolidate an advantage within a decade.