Sweden leads Europe in contact lens wear

Contact lens penetration levels in the UK stand at nearly half the level of top performing Scandinavian nation Sweden, latest research has found.

Data collected by contact lens organisation Euromcontact also showed that the European soft contact lens market value grew by 3.6 per cent to €1.468bn in 2013.

The data, drawn from 11 of the 33 countries that the organisation represents, assessed information on daily disposable, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and conventional soft contact lenses.

Sweden led penetration levels in Europe ahead of Norway and Denmark. A total of 13.5 per cent, up by 7.1 per cent, of Sweden’s 15-64 year-olds were found to be wearing contact lenses, followed by 10.5 per cent in Norway and Denmark. Penetration in the UK and Ireland was found to have grown by just 0.04 per cent to 7.25 per cent.