How Many Contact Lens
Wearers Are There?

BY JOSEPH T. BARR, O.D., M.S., EDITOR
JULY 1996

In January, we reported that there are as few as 22 million and as many as 28 million contact lens wearers in the United States. In 1995, we estimated 27.5 million and mid-year 1993, we estimated 23 to 25 million. Generally, in the past, it's been estimated that there are twice that many contact lens wearers on the planet. If you think we have no idea how many contact lens wearers there truly are, you are correct. Here are two recent events that support the
lower and the upper estimates with all kinds of bias.

I recently spoke with a successful RGP lab owner and soft lens marketer who said he had talked to a number of others who believe, as he does, that the contact lens industry is in recession.

Then, I heard from an O.D. who said, "it's hard to find college students who don't wear contact lenses due to the convenience of disposables, especially for sports," and, I would add, the desire to change their eye color.

My daughters are now contact lens wearers (or is it owners?). One, with low myopia and low astigmatism, wears them occasionally, and the other, with the same conditions, rarely wears them.

Who should we count as contact lens wearers? Some would say we should only count those who pass the Sarver and Harris success criteria for wearing time, vision and minimal cornea changes. Others would tell us to count the occasional wearers. Still others would count the "owners," people who have contact lenses in their drawer. I'm in the middle category. I rarely wear them but when I do, they improve my life greatly. I can finally see during sports or at the beach while wearing my cool plano shades.

The demographics of the contact lens-wearing population do not support recent reports of more wearers in the United States. Or do they? If the baby boomers who wore contact lenses in the past decades are becoming presbyopic and leaving contact lens wear, can we possibly have more contact lens wearers?

In the past, the "experts" considered contact lens wear that was not full-time somehow low class. Indeed, many of us are "closet" occasional contact lens wearers. This could explain the increased number of wearers.

But there's another group of wearers out there. The "baby boomlets." They wear contact lenses because their parents know it's a good option for their active lifestyles. And these youngsters and their parents have unprecedented wealth. So the cost of contact lenses seems much less formidable than it was for my (boomer) generation.

This month you'll find the results of our annual fee and income survey. We'd love to hear how your contact lens practice compares to this report. So please do what I do when I'm fishing this summer and drop us a line.

What's our conclusion about the number of contact lens wearers? Well, it's not down ... Or is it? CLS