Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is extremely common, especially among older adults. Roughly 196 million people worldwide were living with some form of AMD as of 2020, and in the United States alone, nearly 20 million people aged 40 and older have the condition. It is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness for Americans aged 65 and older.
Prevalence by Age
AMD becomes dramatically more common with each passing decade. According to CDC estimates, about 2% of people aged 40 to 44 have some stage of AMD. By age 85 and older, that figure jumps to nearly 47%. The sheer scale of those numbers means that while younger middle-aged adults can develop early signs, AMD is overwhelmingly a disease of later life.
Breaking down the U.S. numbers by age group in 2019, roughly 7.6 million people between 40 and 64 had AMD, 9.3 million between 65 and 84, and about 3 million aged 85 and up. The 65-to-84 group carries the largest absolute number of cases simply because it’s a large population segment where the disease is already well established.
How Racial Background Affects Risk
AMD doesn’t affect all populations equally. A large meta-analysis in the British Journal of Ophthalmology found that white populations have the highest annual incidence of early AMD at about 2.4%, followed by Black populations at 1.7%, Asian populations at 0.9%, and Hispanic populations at 0.5%. The pattern holds for late-stage disease as well: white populations had a late AMD incidence of 0.33% per year, compared to 0.10% in Asian populations, 0.08% in Black populations, and 0.05% in Hispanic populations.
These differences likely reflect a combination of genetic susceptibility, variations in pigmentation that may be protective, and differences in access to screening. Regardless of background, the risk climbs steeply with age for everyone.
Dry vs. Wet AMD
About 80% of people with AMD have the dry form, which progresses slowly and involves a gradual thinning of the macula, the central part of the retina responsible for sharp, detailed vision. The remaining 20% have wet AMD, where abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the retina and leak fluid or blood. Wet AMD is less common but far more aggressive. Vision loss happens faster, and without treatment, it can cause significant damage in weeks or months rather than years.
Most people with early or intermediate dry AMD will never progress to late-stage disease, but a meaningful minority do. The annual rate of developing late AMD is roughly 0.3% per year in white populations, which sounds small but compounds significantly over a decade or two of aging.
Smoking and Other Risk Factors
After age itself, smoking is the strongest modifiable risk factor for AMD. A study in Tobacco Control found that heavy smokers (those with more than 40 pack-years of smoking history) had 2.75 times the odds of developing AMD compared to nonsmokers. The risk increases with the total amount smoked over a lifetime, not just whether someone currently smokes.
Other factors that raise your risk include a family history of AMD, being female, having lighter eye color, obesity, high blood pressure, and prolonged UV exposure without eye protection. Of these, quitting smoking and managing cardiovascular health are the most impactful steps you can take.
Where AMD Is Headed
As populations age worldwide, AMD is expected to grow substantially. Predictive modeling suggests that by 2050, more than 9 million people globally will have vision impairment caused by AMD, with women disproportionately affected (largely because women tend to live longer). In 2021, about 8 million people already had AMD-related vision impairment, so the projected growth represents continued pressure on eye care systems everywhere.
In the United States, the aging of the baby boomer generation means the absolute number of AMD cases will keep climbing even if the per-person risk stays the same. For anyone over 50, regular dilated eye exams are the most reliable way to catch AMD before it causes noticeable vision loss, since early and intermediate stages often produce no symptoms at all.