Myopia Statistics in Asia: 2025 Data for Optometrists
Myopia Statistics in Asia: 2025 Data for Optometrists and Parents
Asia has the highest concentration of childhood myopia anywhere in the world, and the most recent peer-reviewed data confirms the trend is still moving in the wrong direction. New national studies published in 2024 and 2025 from China, South Korea, and Hong Kong — alongside Singapore's own well-documented figures — give the clearest picture yet of how fast myopia is progressing across the region, and why optometrists in Singapore and Southeast Asia are under growing pressure to offer active myopia management rather than simple vision correction.
This article pulls together the latest published prevalence figures by country, explains what is driving them, and outlines what the numbers mean in practical terms for a practice's patient conversations. If you are a parent trying to make sense of a recent diagnosis, or an optometrist looking for current, citable figures for patient education materials, this is a single reference point for the 2025 data.
Why Myopia Statistics Matter Right Now
Myopia prevalence numbers are not just academic. They shape clinical guidelines, insurance and subsidy policy, and — most directly — how urgently a family should treat a child's first myopic prescription. A child who becomes myopic at age 6 in a population where progression typically continues until age 16–17 faces a very different lifetime risk profile than one who becomes myopic at age 13.
The 2024–2025 data wave is significant because it includes long-run national datasets (some spanning 10–25 years) that allow researchers to project forward to 2050, rather than relying on single-year snapshots. That projection capability is what makes the recent literature more useful for practices: it does not just describe today's patients, it estimates the patient population a clinic will be seeing in the next two decades.
China: The Largest Dataset, the Clearest Trend
China has the largest body of longitudinal myopia data of any country, and the most recent meta-analysis — published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific in 2025 — is the most comprehensive yet. Covering studies from 2010 to 2024, it found an overall myopia prevalence of 36.6% among Chinese children, with 5.3% classified as high myopia (typically −6.00 D or worse). The same analysis projects prevalence continuing to climb through 2050, with regional variation that is far wider than a single national average suggests.
That regional variation is stark. A 2024 survey of adolescents aged 12–15 in Shandong Province found myopia prevalence as high as 71.34%, while a study in Chengdu covering 2021–2023 found a lower (though still high) rate of 38.15% among children and adolescents. The takeaway for practices outside China is the same lesson Chinese researchers draw internally: national averages can understate the picture in urban, exam-intensive, screen-heavy environments — which describes most of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Seoul as well.
South Korea: Among the Highest Rates Globally
South Korea's 2025 data, published in Scientific Reports, tracks 13 years of national trends and is one of the more alarming datasets in the current literature. A representative sample of Korean children aged 5–18 found myopia prevalence over 75% by age 13. A separate 10-year study (2013–2022) of late-adolescent men in Seoul found prevalence of 70.67%, with high myopia at 20.29% — meaning roughly one in five young men in that cohort had a sight-threatening level of myopia, not just a need for glasses.
The trend over time is also notable: among girls in the national survey, myopia prevalence rose from 51.6% in 2011 to 73.7% in 2021 — a 22-percentage-point increase in a single decade. Researchers' 2050 projections suggest myopia and high myopia among 19-year-old Korean men could reach approximately 84% and 28% respectively if current trends continue unchecked. Older age and parental myopia were the strongest associated risk factors, with higher BMI specifically associated with high myopia.
Hong Kong: A Post-Pandemic Surge That Has Not Reversed
Hong Kong's data is particularly useful because it captures a natural experiment: what happens to myopia rates when outdoor time and near-work habits are disrupted at scale. The Hong Kong Children Eye Study, published in JAMA Network Open, followed over 20,000 children aged 6 to 8 through and after COVID-19 restrictions. Myopia prevalence in this age group was stable at 23.5%–24.9% from 2015 to 2019, rose to 28.8% in 2020, and climbed to a record 36.2% in 2021 — with prevalence in six-year-olds specifically doubling compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Critically, researchers found that even after restrictions lifted, outdoor time, near-work time, and screen time did not return to pre-pandemic levels — and experts now expect elevated prevalence to persist for years rather than self-correct. This matters for practices everywhere in the region: many clinics anecdotally describe a "COVID cohort" of unusually early-onset myopia patients now moving through primary school, and the Hong Kong data is the clearest confirmation that this is a real, measurable shift rather than a perception.
Singapore: Consistently High, Consistently Early
Singapore's figures remain among the most cited in the region precisely because they have been tracked consistently since the National Myopia Prevention Programme began in 2001. By Primary 6 (around age 12), 65% of Singapore children are myopic, rising to 83% of young adults. Up to 20% of Singapore children now develop high myopia — roughly double the proportion recorded a decade ago.
What the newer regional data adds to Singapore's own figures is context: Singapore's numbers are not an outlier curiosity but part of a consistent East and Southeast Asian pattern. Where Singapore differs is in the maturity of its public health response — sustained outdoor-time campaigns, school-based vision screening, and broad clinical familiarity with atropine and orthokeratology — which gives optical practices in Singapore a head start on patient education that practices in some neighbouring markets are still building.
Myopia Statistics Compared Side by Side
| Region | Childhood Myopia Prevalence | High Myopia Prevalence | Notable Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| China (national, 2010–2024) | 36.6% | 5.3% | Wide regional variation (38%–71%) |
| China — Shandong, ages 12–15 (2024) | 71.34% | — | Among the highest sub-national rates |
| South Korea, age 13+ | 75%+ | 20.29% (late-adolescent men) | Girls' rate up 22 points in a decade |
| Hong Kong, ages 6–8 (2021) | 36.2% | — | Doubled in 6-year-olds post-pandemic |
| Singapore, by Primary 6 (~age 12) | 65% | ~20% | Stable, well-documented since 2001 |
What the Comparison Shows
Read across these five datasets, two things stand out. First, every population shows the same underlying mechanism: prevalence rises sharply through the primary and early secondary school years, driven by sustained near work, limited outdoor time, and (more recently) the pandemic-era disruption to both. Second, the variation between regions — and even between sub-regions within the same country — is large enough that practices should treat national averages as a floor, not a ceiling, when counselling families in urban, academically intensive catchments.
Where the Projections Point
Every long-run dataset reviewed here — China, Korea, and the global projection synthesised by the broader myopia research community — points toward continued increases through 2050, with global myopia prevalence projected to approach 50% of the population and high myopia approaching 10%. None of the recent literature suggests the trend is plateauing on its own; the studies that show stabilisation (such as Hong Kong's pre-2020 data) show it only under sustained, deliberate intervention — not as a natural ceiling.
What This Means for Optical Practices
For practices in Singapore and the broader Southeast Asian region, three practical implications follow from this data.
Early detection conversations need to start younger. The Hong Kong data on six-year-olds and the Korean data on rising rates among younger girls both suggest that "wait and see" approaches to first prescriptions are increasingly risky. A child myopic at age 6 or 7 has a far longer window of progression than one diagnosed at 10 or 11, and the regional data increasingly supports earlier, more proactive monitoring — including axial length measurement alongside refraction — rather than relying on visual acuity alone.
Patient education materials need current, citable numbers. Many practices are still quoting prevalence figures that are five or more years old. The 2024–2025 wave of national studies gives practices fresher, more defensible numbers to use in parent conversations, marketing material, and clinical handouts — and citing a named, recent study (rather than a vague "studies show") tends to land better with educated parents doing their own research.
Active management has moved from optional to expected. With high myopia rates climbing in every market reviewed here, parents are increasingly arriving at appointments already aware of atropine, orthokeratology, and myopia control spectacle lenses — sometimes from social media rather than clinical sources. Practices that can speak fluently and current to the latest regional data are better positioned to be trusted advisors on treatment choice rather than simply dispensing a new prescription.
Tracking Progression in Your Own Patients
Population-level statistics are useful for context, but the more actionable question for any individual child is how their own prescription is tracking against expected progression curves for their age and region. This is where CarrotByte's free Myopia Progression Calculator is useful for both parents and practices — it lets you input a child's current and historical prescriptions to visualise their progression trend against population benchmarks, making it easier to have a data-grounded conversation about whether intervention is warranted.
For practices that want to screen new patients more systematically, the companion Myopia Risk Calculator estimates a child's risk of developing myopia based on parental history, age, and lifestyle factors — useful for identifying which pre-myopic patients warrant closer monitoring before a prescription is ever issued.
The Bottom Line
These myopia statistics from Asia confirm what most optometrists in the region have observed anecdotally for several years: myopia prevalence remains high, is trending upward in most markets, and is shifting younger in at least some populations. China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore each show a consistent underlying pattern, even as the precise numbers vary by region and methodology. For practices, the clearest implication is that this is no longer a niche concern — it is the dominant pattern in the patient population most Singapore and Southeast Asian optical practices already serve. Staying current on the data, and using it proactively in patient conversations, is increasingly part of what sets an active-management practice apart from one that simply updates prescriptions.
Sources: Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific (2025) China myopia meta-analysis and projections to 2050; Scientific Reports (2025) South Korea 13-year myopia trends; JAMA Network Open Hong Kong Children Eye Study; Singapore Health Promotion Board National Myopia Prevention Programme data.