What you should know about blindness in the UK

In the UK alone, there are around two million people who live with sight loss according to the NHS, with the elderly being particularly affected.

How is it caused?

While many people are born blind or with vision impairment, others develop these kinds of issues over time and through accidents. When it comes to adults in the UK, the largest percentage of people with sight loss suffer from refractive errors. Age-related macular degeneration and cataracts are also main causes of sight loss in UK adults.

How is it treated?

In the UK, there are many ways that sight loss can be treated, although not all causes can be cured completely. For those who suffer from issues with their corneas, there have been developments to cure corneal blindness. This is due to advanced technology and funding from those who care about these matters.

Around £3 billion each year is spent on eye health within the UK. Many people take advantage of the NHS for eye treatment, but others invest in private treatment and products that can help.

While treatment is not always possible for all causes, there are medical professionals out there who are doing what they can to find a cure for these issues.

How are children affected

While there are around two million people in the UK who have sight issues, these are just the adults. According to reports, there are more than 25,000. people aged 16 or under who are visually impaired. The majority of these children are in England with 21,900 people registered with visual impairments there.

The most common cause of blindness in children in the UK is cerebral visual impairment. Interestingly, around 70% of children with visual impairment are in mainstream education, others being taught in specialist units.

Why is it important?

You only have one pair of eyes, so general eye health is very important. While many cases are caused at birth or by illness, knowing the risks of being involved in an accident or inadvertently damaging your eyes is one of the