ALEXANDRIA, Va.—About 3.7 million more pairs of lenses were sold in the U.S. during the 12-month period ending June 2014 than were sold during the 12-month period ending June 2008, before the recession set in and slowed sales throughout the entire optical industry, according to the most recent statistics released by VisionWatch, the large scale continuous research study conducted by The Vision Council. That’s an increase of about 5 percent.

The 78.5 million pairs of lenses sold in the U.S. during the twelve-month period ending June 2014 represented an increase of about 1.3 percent when compared with the number of lenses sold in the previous comparable twelve-month period and an increase of 2.7 percent when compared with the comparable twelve-month period in 2012.

Over the past 24 months, sales of progressive addition lenses (PALs) have rebounded, easily surpassing where they were before the recession, according to Stephen Kodey, senior director of industry research for The Vision Council. He predicted that sales of PALs should continue to grow faster over the coming years with the increasing popularity and functionality of free-form digitally surfaced PALs.

Even though PAL sales saw the largest year-over-year growth for the twelve month period ending June 2014 when compared with the previous comparable twelve-month period (up 2 percent), single vision lenses saw similar growth in sales over the past year (up 1.8 percent). During the twelve-month period ending June 2014, more than 40.2 million pairs of single vision lenses were sold, representing a net increase of 800,000 pairs when compared to sales from the twelve-month period ending June 2013.

After enjoying a brief period of increasing sales and popularity during the recession, the multifocal market saw sales declines during the past four years, according to Kodey. VisionWatch statistics indicate that there were 15.2 million pairs of multifocal lenses sold during the twelve-month period ending June 2014, which is down by 100,000 pairs over the number of multifocal lenses sold during the 12-month period ending June 2013 (down 1.1 percent).

 
Source: VisionWatch, the large scale continuous research study conducted by The Vision Council.