Short-sightedness is nearly ubiquitous in East Asia—80% of students and graduates have myopia in Hong Kong and Singapore. In South Korea, it’s 90%. For comparison, the rate of short-sightedness in California is 59% and in Europe its estimated to be 20-40%.
One reason is that children are not getting exposure to enough daylight because they are sitting in classrooms all day. A recent study suggests that more time outside can cut the number of people who develop myopia.
Read Short-sightedness has become an epidemic from The Economist.
How might vision loss effect the world?