Senile cataract account of cateract extractions performed in an urbanized population during the third quarter of the present century.

Since the late 1940's the annual number of cataract extractions performed at the Eye Department of the Municipal Hospital of Copenhagen has quintupled. This increase has been followed by a tendency towards stabilisation. An increase of the potential cataract clientele by about 60 per cent and an extended indication for operation are considered obvious causes of this rise, to which must be added an increase-inducing factor due to the popularisation of a visual rehabilitating operation in a community with a relative preponderance of old inhabitants. An attempt at a statistical calculation of the percentage of the population subjected to cataract extraction in a defined area, related to age, is presented. This calculation may be of some guidance in the planning of ophthalmosurgical facilities.