"The increasing prevalence of myopia globally and the growing ageing population are major contributors to the continuous growth in demand for eyewear," said eyewear industry analyst Anna Cheng. "With higher demands for functional eyewear, such as office lenses, progressive lenses and digital devices lenses, competition is toughening for the leading players as more low-cost providers are introducing lower-quality products marketed to provide similar functions at a much lower price."

While North America remains the leading region in terms of eyewear sales in 2016, Asia Pacific leads total value sales of daily disposable lenses, topping Western Europe and North America by almost 1.6 and 1.9 times, respectively. With growing disposable income, consumers in these regions increasingly prefer daily disposable lenses for hygiene and convenience reasons.

Despite a gloomy year in 2016, Asia Pacific eyewear sales will continue growing to reach nearly $11.6bn, 1.5 times larger than Western Europe in terms of retail value sales of spectacle frames by 2021.

The top ten fastest-growing eyewear markets in 2016-2021 will be:

India, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Malaysia, Romania, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore and Canada.

Source: Euromonitor International