Hearing Loss Statistics

Johns Hopkins bar graph. "Percentage of Individuals with Hearing Loss by Age and & Severity" 72.9 Million (22.2% Americans aged 20 years or older have hearing loss. Ages 20-29, 4.1% Ages 30-39, 7.9% Ages 40-49, 14.1% Ages 50-59, 28.7% or appx 1 in 4 Ages 60-69 50.3% or 1 in 2 Ages 70-79, 72.1% or 7 in 10 Ages 80+: 84.3% or 8 in 10

https://www.jhucochlearcenter.org/infographic-hearing-loss-prevalence-us

Sound Check Map. Interactive map (webpage). Understanding hearing loss prevalence and increasing awareness of hearing health solutions.

US map, shaded by county, depending on the degree of hearing loss

Communication

Of those people who are deaf/Deaf or have a hearing loss, approximately:

  • 97.2% to 99% use oral communication
  • 1% to 2.8% use sign language, such as American Sign Language (ASL)

References

Resource

  • Ross E Mitchell, Travas A Young, How Many People Use Sign Language? A National Health Survey-Based Estimate, The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Volume 28, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enac031

“In sum, sign language use in the USA is substantial (approaching 3% of the adult population in 2014). Though most (around 83%) of the estimated 6.4 to 7.0 million adults claiming to use sign language were hearing, more of whom were women than men, around 1 million deaf and hard-of-hearing adults used sign language (.1 to .2 million of whom specifically identified as deaf— an age-by-sex-adjusted 39%).”