• About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears.
• More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents.
• Approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing.
• Men are more likely than women to report having hearing loss.
• One in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears, based on standard hearing examinations.
• About 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 54 have disabling hearing loss. The rate increases to 8.5 percent for adults aged 55 to 64. Nearly 25 percent of those aged 65 to 74 and 50 percent of those who are 75 and older have disabling hearing loss.
• The NIDCD estimates that approximately 15 percent of Americans (26 million people) between the ages of 20 and 69 have high frequency hearing loss due to exposure to noise at work or during leisure activities.
• Roughly 10 percent of the U.S. adult population, or about 25 million Americans, has experienced tinnitus lasting at least five minutes in the past year.
• Among adults aged 70 and older with hearing loss who could benefit from hearing aids, fewer than one in three (30 percent) has ever used them. Even fewer adults aged 20 to 69 (approximately 16 percent) who could benefit from wearing hearing aids have ever used them.
• As of December 2012, approximately 324,200 cochlear implants have been implanted worldwide. In the United States, roughly 58,000 devices have been implanted in adults and 38,000 in children.
• Five out of 6 children experience ear infection (otitis media) by the time they are 3 years old.
  • Compiled by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).

Data and statistics from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Information from American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Gallaudet University's Research Institute

Since 1968, Gallaudet University's Research Institute (GRI) has been conducting surveys and collecting information relevant to deaf and hard of hearing children and youth. The Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children & Youth focuses on information that is:

• demographic,
• audiological,
• and educational relevant

and is used by

• state and federal education and budgetary officials,
• education staff within schools,
• and other researchers.