Facts
Corneal blindness, in numbers.
Every figure here carries its source and the year it describes. Estimates of blindness vary widely, so these are the most recent careful ones we found.
- About 900,000People in India blind from corneal disease that could have been prevented or treated (2023 estimate; the range runs from 0.2 to 1.6 million).Gupta et al., British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2025
- 20,000 to 30,000People in India who lose their sight to corneal disease each year, by government estimates.Gupta et al., Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 2013
- 100,000Corneal transplants India needs each year. In 2023 its eye banks collected 47,676 corneas, and 29,057 were transplanted.Parihar, Annals of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), 2024
- About 200,000Corneas India would need to collect each year to reach 100,000 transplants.Parihar, Annals of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), 2024
- 5.5 millionPeople worldwide who have lost sight in both eyes to corneal disease. Another 6.2 million are blind in one eye.Wang et al., Ophthalmology, 2023
- 4.2 millionPeople with moderate to severe vision loss or blindness from corneal opacity, by the World Health Organization’s estimate. Trachoma causes it in 2 million more.WHO, World Report on Vision, 2019
- 184,576Corneal transplants performed in 116 countries in 2012. That year, 53% of the world’s people had no access to the surgery.Gain et al., JAMA Ophthalmology, 2016
- More than 2.5 millionCorneal transplants supplied by member eye banks of the Eye Bank Association of America since 1961.Eye Bank Association of America, checked October 2026
- More than 95%Corneal transplants that succeed, as eye banks in the United States report. Success is lower for corneas scarred by infection.Eye Bank Association of America; Dandona et al., British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1997