Millions would benefit from hearing aids
Many millions of people in the world with hearing loss use hearing aids and the number and proportion of people are growing. But there are even more people with hearing loss who still do not use hearing aids.
Europe
In Europe, on average around one in three, or around 35% of those who have a disabling hearing loss, use hearing aids, according to the report “Hearing Loss – Numbers and Cost” published by hear-it AISBL.
In European countries such as Germany, France and United Kingdom, around 42% of those who say they have a hearing loss use hearing aids, according to the EuroTrak surveys. In some the Scandinavian countries, around 50% of those with a hearing loss use hearing aids.
In other European countries, the figure is lower. In Italy, 29.5% of those who say that they have a hearing loss use hearing aids. In Poland, only 21.4% use hearing aids.
Other countries
In the US, the MarkeTrak survey MarkeTrak 10 (2018) found that nearly 35% of those who say that they have difficulty hearing use hearing aids. This means that more than 3.5 % of all Americans use hearing aids.
In New Zealand, around 42% of those who say they have a hearing loss use hearing aids.
In Japan, a similar survey found that only 13.5% of those who say they have a hearing loss use hearing aids.
The use of hearing aids among people with hearing loss in Canada and Australia is estimated to be around the same figure as the figure for the US and the average figure for Europe.
In many other countries around the world, the number of people with hearing loss, who use hearing aids is somewhat lower that the figures from Europe and the US.
Two hearing aids
Still more people with hearing loss use two hearing aids.
In Europe, around 70% of those who use hearing aids use two hearing aids. In the US, around 75% of those who use hearing aids use two hearing aids. In New Zealand, nearly eight out of ten (78%) of all hearing aid users use two hearing aids. The percentage of those who use two hearing aids has been increasing in the last decades.
Age and severity
The percentage of those with hearing loss who use hearing aids both increases with age and the degree of the hearing loss.
Figures from Europe (EuroTrak surveys) show that among those aged 65 and over, nearly 50% of those with hearing loss use hearing aids, while this is only the case for around 30-35% of those under the age of 65.
The EuroTrak surveys also find that among people with more severe hearing loss, between 55% and 75% use hearing aids, while only around 20% with a mild hearing loss use hearing aids.
Sources: EuroTrak surveys, MarkeTrak 10 survey, surveys in Japan and New Zealand and the report “Hearing loss – Numbers and Cost” by hear-it AISBL.