Compilation and Expansion A: Statistics on the Blind and Low Vision Population - Compendium (2025)

Statistics on the Blind and Low Vision Populations

This section presents statistics on people with blindness and vision disabilities in the United States. People who are blind or have low vision range from engaging in their lives with entirely non-visual strategies all the way to people who may just need magnification or supplemental lighting to see certain tasks, or those who may have a reduced field of vision. And just as the level of vision is widely varied, all other human characteristics will vary as well, with blind and low vision people coming from all economic backgrounds, races and ethnicities, and other demographic factors. With this diversity in mind, we invite you to explore the following tables for key outcome and quality of life measures, where blindness or low vision, and the societal barriers and attitudes about those disabilities, are likely to have significant impact on people’s lives. The principal source of these data is the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. For these tables, statistics for people with disabilities (disability status or disability type) are based on having responded yes to one or more questions within the American Community Survey (see glossary for details).

For the complete Compilation and Expansion please go to https://www.researchondisability.org/ADSC/

Tables starting with the letter “A” are found only in this Compilation and Expansion. Numbered tables are from other Sections in the Compendium.

This expansion was authored by and made in collaboration with our partners at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), Dr. Sarahelizabeth Baguhn and Dr. Arielle Silverman. For more statistics on the blind and low vision community please go to https://afb.org/stats.

Tables

Table A.1: In 2023, the portion of the United States population with blindness or low vision (as measured by the question “Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses”) was 8,291,000, up from 8,165,000 in 2022.

Table 1.5: The state with the largest blindness or low vision population in 2023 was California/CA with 845,000 individuals. The state with the smallest population in 2023 was Vermont/VT with 14,000 individuals. Puerto Rico/PR had the highest rate of vision disability per capita (7.5%).

Table 2.3: People with vision disabilities may experience impacts on their ability to perform self-care or independent living tasks. This may be a proxy for the severity or impact the vision disability has in the person’s day to day life. Some individuals may report self-care or independent living disabilities due to a separate disability other than vision as well. 15.3% of people in the United States with vision disabilities report a self-care disability, and 27.3% report an independent living disability.

Table 2.4: People with visual disabilities may experience disability with self-care tasks or independent living tasks. The ACS does not differentiate whether this experience is caused by vision difficulties, or if a person is experiencing other co-occurring disabilities. However, since vision loss can impact both self-care and independent living, these rates are of interest. It is important to note that some people with vision difficulty, including some people who are totally blind, may not experience disability in these areas after having access to adequate education or rehabilitation services that equip them with the appropriate skills and assistive technologies to perform tasks independently and efficiently using alternate methods. There are also features of the community environment, such as quality of mass transit systems, that impact blind and low vision individuals’ access to independent living, which is measured by a question about doing errands alone.

Table 3.3: This table shows the employment of people with and without vision disabilities. The relative ratio shows the percentage of people with vision difficulties employed relative to their sighted peers in that region. A ratio of 1 would indicate that people with vision difficulties are as likely to be employed as those who are sighted. A ratio of 0.5 indicates that people with vision difficulties are half as likely to be employed as their sighted neighbors.

Table A.2: This table shows the industries in which people work. Some industries show similar representation of workers with and without vision difficulties, while others such as Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services have a significant gap.

Table A.3: This table shows the occupations in which people work. People with vision difficulties are more likely than sighted peers to work in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations, but less likely to work in business and financial operations. People with vision difficulties are more likely than sighted peers to work in healthcare support occupations, but less likely to work as healthcare practitioners.

Table A.4: The median earnings for people employed full time show a large gap, with sighted people frequently outearning blind and low vision individuals. Nationally, the gap is as much as $11,215.00. The most egregious pay gap was $50,976.00 in the District of Columbia/DC. States with a p-value greater than .05 indicate that the data did not provide adequate evidence that the gap was significantly different than zero.

Table 6.3: Perhaps unsurprisingly following table A.4 showing the lower earnings of people employed full time who have vision difficulties, the poverty rates are also unequal between groups. The relative ratios of 2 and above indicate regions where a person who is blind or low vision is twice as likely to live in poverty as someone without a vision disability. In some states, people with vision difficulties are three times more likely to live in poverty.

Table A.5: Technology access to the internet opens many opportunities for education, employment, and community access. Nationally, people with vision difficulties are twice as likely to live in a home without internet access as sighted individuals. As seen by relative ratios above 3.0, in some states they may even be three times more likely to live without internet access.

Table A.6: Access to high speed internet provides a robust internet connection for opportunities for education, employment, and community access. Nationally, people with vision difficulties are nearly twice as likely to live in a home without high speed internet as sighted individuals. As seen by relative ratios above 2.5, in some states they may even be two and a half times more likely to live without high speed internet access.

Table A.7: Technology access to the internet and a home computer opens many opportunities for education, employment, and community access. People with vision difficulties are twice as likely to live in a home without computer access than sighted individuals. As seen by relative ratios above 3.0, in some states they may even be three times more likely to live without a home computer.

Table A.8: Another common form of internet access at home is a smartphone or tablet. People who have vision difficulties are two and a half times more likely to live in a home without access to these essential access tools. Smartphones include a range of assistive technology apps that can provide text reading, money identification, color identification, and other specially designed features to support people who are blind or have low vision, so this lack of access becomes two-fold. It is not only a limitation in accessing the internet at large, but also reduces the range of assistive technologies available to the individual.

Table A.9: Sometimes called the paper ceiling, a 4-year college degree is required to enter some careers. Nationally, people who have vision difficulties are about as likely as other disabled people to attain this education. However, some states seem to have large disparities in college completion, such as North Dakota where people with vision difficulties are only about half as likely to complete a 4-year degree.

Table A.10: Sometimes called the paper ceiling, a 4-year college degree is required to enter some careers. Nationally, people who have vision difficulties are less than half as likely as non-disabled people to attain this education. New Mexico/NM has the largest disparity with people with vision difficulties completing college at just under a third the rate of their non-disabled neighbors.

Table A.11: Of the 131,366 people awarded Social Security Disability Insurance benefits because of Blindness, 108,415 are workers, 2,080 are widow(er)s, and 20,871 are Disabled Adult Children, (go to the glossary for more details). The mean monthly benefit is $1,537 while the median monthly benefit is $1,410.