About 153 million people worldwide have easily correctable vision problems that lead children to fail at school and leave adults unable to work, according to a new report released Wednesday.

A simple sight test and glasses or contact lenses could allow people to live productive working lives, said the authors of the report by the World Health Organization.

About 90 per cent of people with uncorrected refractive errors — near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism — live in low- and middle-income countries, the agency found.

"Individuals and families are frequently pushed into a cycle of deepening poverty because of their inability to see well," the WHO said in a statement released ahead of World Sight Day on Thursday.

Estimates from 2002 excluded refractive errors, instead focusing on visual impairments from eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration.

With the addition of refractive problems, the total number of people who are visually impaired almost doubled to 314 million from 161 million globally.

Now that the extent of the problem of uncorrected refractive errors is known, the WHO must boost its efforts to ensure people get the help they need, said Dr. Serge Resnikoff, who coordinates the agency's chronic disease prevention and management unit.

As part of the Vision 2020 program, the WHO, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and other organizations aim to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide by 2020, in part by improving access to affordable eye exams and eyeglasses in poor countries.