The State of Vision

Great strides are being made in increasing access to eye care. In 2017, experts predicted that, without action, global blindness would triple to nearly 115 million people by 2050. Thanks to the efforts of organizations like Orbis and others in the eye care community, that tripling has been offset.

Despite this progress, eye care needs are still urgent and rapidly growing. As people live longer lives, as the world’s population grows, and as lifestyle changes cause an uptick in conditions like diabetic retinopathy and myopia (near-sightedness), we are seeing a growing number of people with sight-threatening conditions who need eye care. Global blindness is still projected to reach 60 million by 2050.

Eye health is a good investment. Every $1 invested in eye health in low- and middle-income countries is estimated to yield $4 in economic gain.

The number of people in need of eye care is outpacing the number of trained ophthalmologists. An increase in the number of skilled eye care professionals as well as high-quality training and mentoring opportunities are urgently needed if we are to meet rising demands and ensure that no one loses their sight from preventable or treatable causes.

Orbis’ innovative and sustainable solutions are designed to have exponential impact to meet this growing need. We train eye care teams in areas with the greatest need so they can fight avoidable vision loss in their communities. Those who receive training go on to provide sight-saving care for many people over the course of their careers and, in some cases, go on to train additional eye health workers.

With your support, we can change the way the world sees.