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Population Health

Prevalence rates of U.S. vision disorders, vision loss, & blindness

Research Provides Updated Prevalence Rates of Vision and Eye Health Disorders, Vision Loss, and Blindness

Research providing updated prevalence rates of vision and eye health disorders, vision loss, and blindness in the United States at the national, state, and county levels was conducted by the NORC at the University of Chicago and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The prevalence estimates from this research was developed by using data within CDC’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System (VEHSS).

Get the latest state and national data on vision and eye health.

Age-related Macular Degeneration

A 2022 study, The Prevalence of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the United States In 2019, found that in 2019, an estimated 19.83 million Americans were living with some form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

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Visual Acuity Loss and Blindness

This study has found that as of 2017, 7.08 million people are living with uncorrectable visual acuity loss, including 1.08 million Americans who are living with blindness. The prevalence of permanent vision loss is 68% higher than previously available estimates.

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Prevalence of Diabetic Retinopathy

A new study found that in 2021, an estimated 9.6 million people in the United States (26.4 percent of those with diabetes) had diabetic retinopathy (DR), and 1.84 million people (5.1 percent of those with diabetes) had vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR).

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This  information was supported by Cooperative Agreement Numbers NU58DP007190, U01DP006074, and U01DP006444, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the CDC or the US Department of Health and Human Services.