Poor vision can directly affect the personal health, happiness and development of children.  

It may also limit their potential to become productive workers and citizens.

More research is needed on the economic costs of poor vision in children, but at least one study suggests its broad impact. Across Southeast Asia, myopia affects a significant proportion of the child population, including an estimated 73.9% of teenagers in Singapore. A 2008 study put the direct costs of that country's myopia in this age group at $25 million.

Around the world, an estimated 30% of children below age 18 experience problems with uncorrected vision. Good sight is crucial to education; 80% of what children learn is acquired through the visual processing of information. But poor vision may go undiagnosed even as elementary education begins. In the United States, only 14% of children have received a comprehensive eye examination by age six.

Those with visual impairment are at greater risk of setbacks in their social development and integration. If not detected early, vision problems can change a child's life for the worse, potentially leading to antisocial or delinquent behavior. Several studies have linked vision, learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency, with one recent paper from the US finding that over 70% of juvenile offenders had undiagnosed vision problems.

The connection between poor eyesight in workers and economic performance is clear.

Globally, an estimated 33% of workers have vision that could be improved by eye exams and corrective lenses. The problem can reduce employee performance by up to 20%.

A 2009 collaborative study by the World Health Organization found that uncorrected vision accounts for nearly $270 billion of productivity worldwide. Nearly half of that lost productivity was in the Western Pacific Region, including China.

Poor vision hurts efficiency on the job, with vision problems from childhood often carrying over into adulthood. The consequences include lower literacy levels. US data found that 66-74% of adults with literacy problems failed vision screenings. Increasing literacy scores by just 1% can lead to a 2.5% relative rise in labor productivity and a 1.5% increase in GDP per person.

Visual impairment also affects an individual's chances of finding and enjoying work. Recent research among workers in under 50 in 12 European countries and Israel found that poor vision had a strong impact on employment, job satisfaction, productivity and well-being.

After age 40, eye disease, visual impairment and blindness increase threefold with each decade.

Uncorrected refractive error is particularly common. Visual impairment disproportionately affects aging populations and yet under-treatment of their vision problems, particularly regarding uncorrected refractive error, remains a challenge.

Poor vision can make simple tasks more difficult, hinder social interaction and reduce participation in the community. One Finnish study of people over age 55 found that those with a binocular visual acuity less than 0.6 have 2 to 5 times more limitation in daily tasks such as cooking, shopping and getting around.

Given that all countries have aging populations with increasingly poor vision, it is surprising that little research is available on this group. One of the few existing studies highlights the cost of falls, seven times more common among elderly people with visual impairment. In Australia, the impact of falls on the healthcare system in 2001 was estimated to be close to $500 million, projected to increase three-fold by 2051.

Globally, 23% of drivers have uncorrected vision, illustrating impact on safety and productivity.

An estimated 23% of drivers have uncorrected vision and need lenses to improve their visual capacity while behind the wheel. That is essential for safety: more than 90% of decisions made while driving depend on good vision.

Crashes occur all over the world, but studies of their economic impact are scarce. Research from Italy's National Institute for Statistics suggests the scale of the impact. It found that the cost of road accidents due to impaired vision in 2007 at over 18 billion Euros — roughly 1.2% of GDP.

An estimated 1.2 million people die and 50 million are injured worldwide each year in road accidents. Even so, no international vision standard exists for obtaining a driving license, and most existing screening is insufficient. The United Kingdom, for instance, merely requires applicants to be able to read a number plate at about 20 meters.