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Facts and figures about deafness in the UK

How many people are affected?

• Almost 9 million people in the UK, one in seven of the population, suffer from deafness or experience significant hearing difficulty.

Childhood deafness

• It is estimated that there are nearly 35,000 children and young people aged 0 - 25 in the UK with permanent deafness (greater than 40dB).
• 840 babies are born every year with impaired hearing in both ears.  The vast majority of these are born to hearing parents
• Around half of those children with a permanent deafness have inherited it from one or both of their parents.
• Eight in ten children will have had an ear infection by the time they are three years old
• About six percent of young children between two and four years of age have a persistent problem with glue ear.
• Worldwide, the main cause of mild to moderate hearing impairment in children is chronic middle ear infection. (source:World Health Organization)

The cost of deafness

• In the UK, the cost of interventions for deaf and hearing impaired people is approximately £214,000 for every 1,000 people affected, over the course of a lifetime..

Noise and children

• Children's toys can produce sound levels of up to 110 dBA.  Noise levels above 80 dBA are potentially dangerous depending on length of exposure
• Around six per cent of children are thought to suffer hyperacusis (an over-sensitivity to noise).

Noise at work

• Around 1.1 million people are exposed to potentially damaging noise levels in the workplace.
• According to health and safety regulations, employers must take action if workplace noise exceeds 80 dBA.

Noise and leisure

• The Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research has found that 18.8% of young people are exposed to loud music for long enough to constitute a hazard to hearing.
• More than 70% of people who visit nightclubs will experience temporary tinnitus, potentially causing longer-term hearing problems.

Tinnitus

• About 10% of adults (4.9 million people in the UK) have experienced tinnitus for longer than five minutes.
• About 5% of UK adults (2.4 million people) have tinnitus which they find severely or moderately annoying.
• About 0.5% of adults in the UK (242,000 people) have tinnitus which has a severe effect on their ability to lead a normal life.

Technology

• In the UK there are around 2 million people with hearing aids, but they are only used regularly by 1.4 million.  It is estimated that some four million people would benefit from hearing aids.
• There are 180,000 implant users in the world, and 6,000 have received bilateral implants. There are about 7,000 cochlear implant users in the UK. (source: The Ear Foundation, 2008)
• By the end of 2007, there were more than 40,000 Baha (bone anchored hearing aid) users worldwide. (source: The Ear Foundation, 2008)

Deafness in later life

• Age-related hearing loss normally begins at around 50, and 55 per cent of people over 60 are deaf or hard of hearing.  Over 70% of people over 70 have some degree of hearing loss.

Causes of deafness

• 87% of all deafness results from damage to the sensitive hair cells within the inner ear or cochlea. This is known as sensorineural deafness.
• Sensorineural deafness can result from exposure to loud noise, viral or bacterial infections, genetic causes, prescribed medicines (including some antibiotics) or simply from old age.

The social impact of deafness

• People with acquired hearing loss may experience disassociation from their environment due to the absence of everyday background sounds. This feeling of being 'cut off' from the world can lead to depression. Confidence can be eroded causing people to avoid social contact.
• In cases of profound acquired deafness, speech may be affected, adding to communication difficulties.
• Despite legislation, maintaining, or gaining, employment may be problematic.
• Access to public places may be restricted due to a lack of facilities such as loop or visual systems.
• Deaf people may be more at risk in public places due to a lack of visual or tactile alarm systems.

Fun facts

• The middle ear is no bigger than an M&M.
• The cochlea (inner ear) is about the size of a pencil eraser.
• The ear never stops working. Even when people are asleep, the ear continues to  receive sounds, but the brain shuts them out.
• In Sudan, a tribe of people called the Maaban live in such quiet that they can hear a whisper from across a baseball field.