April 30, 2026
1 min read
Key takeaways:
- Effective cataract surgical coverage ranged from 2.1% in Burundi in 2024 to 77.7% in Qatar in 2023.
- Coverage was estimated to grow to 52.3% by 2030, falling short of a World Health Assembly goal.
Efforts to meet the need for cataract surgery around the world “are not on track” to reach goals established for 2030, according to an analysis published in The Lancet Global Health.
Across the world, effective cataract surgical coverage was forecasted to grow by about 8.4 percentage points between 2020 and 2030 — short of the 30 percentage point goal set at the 74th World Health Assembly in 2021.
Efforts to meet the need for cataract surgery around the world “are not on track” to meet goals established for 2030. Image: Adobe Stock
“Cataract surgery can be a highly cost-effective intervention to restore vision, improve quality of life and reduce poverty,” study author Ian McCormick, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “However, equitable access to affordable, good-quality cataract services remains an aspiration in many countries.”
Using the Global Vision Database, McCormick and colleagues analyzed population-based surveys on vision and eye health from 68 countries. The analysis included 233 surveys conducted from 2003 to 2024, 96% of which were standardized Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness surveys.
Effective cataract surgical coverage was defined as the number of people who had surgery with postoperative visual acuity of 6/18 or better divided by the number of people who need or underwent cataract surgery.
According to the results, estimates of effective cataract surgical coverage ranged from 2.1% in Burundi in 2024 to 77.7% in Qatar in 2023.
The researchers estimated that, globally, effective cataract surgical coverage grew from 28.2% to 43.9% from 2000 to 2020, reaching 48.2% in 2025. Based on that trend, they estimated that it would grow by 8.4 percentage points by 2030, reaching 52.3%.
“This increase represents considerably less than the global target of a 30 percentage point increase endorsed at the 74th World Health Assembly,” the researchers wrote. “This study suggests that the 2030 target for [effective cataract surgical coverage] will not be attained without immediate and substantial investment in cataract services, particularly in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and Americas regions.”
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