Hearing aid industry statistics span a much larger population than hearing-aid owners. Current WHO estimates place some degree of hearing loss above 1.5 billion people worldwide, while modeled and survey evidence shows substantial unmet need across global access, U.S. adoption and older-adult care.
Key Hearing Aid Industry Statistics
The most broadly useful figures include:
- In the current WHO estimate, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide live with some degree of hearing loss.
- In the current WHO estimate, about 430 million people worldwide require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss, including 34 million children.
- WHO projects that nearly 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss worldwide by 2050.
- WHO projects that more than 700 million people, or about one in 10 people, will have disabling hearing loss by 2050.
- In the current WHO estimate, more than 25% of people older than 60 worldwide have disabling hearing loss.
- In the current WHO estimate, nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries.
- WHO estimates that hearing-aid production meets less than 10% of global demand.
- WHO estimates that unaddressed hearing loss costs about US$980 billion per year worldwide.
- In 2019, an estimated 72.88 million people in the United States had hearing loss.
- In 2019, U.S. hearing loss prevalence was estimated at 22.2% of the total population.
- In the 2019 U.S. Global Burden of Disease analysis, 9.7% of people with mild-to-profound hearing loss used a hearing aid.
- In 2021, 29.2% of U.S. adults aged 71 and older with hearing loss used hearing aids.
- In the 2021 U.S. study, 6.4 million adults aged 71 and older with hearing loss used hearing aids.
- In NHANES 2017-March 2020, 31.3% of U.S. adults aged 70 and older with nonprofound loss used a hearing assistance device.
- In pooled U.S. NHANES cycles from 2005-06 through 2011-12, unilateral hearing loss affected 7.2% of adults.
- In the same pooled analysis, only 2.0% of U.S. adults with unilateral hearing loss used hearing aids.
- Sonova’s Hearing Instruments segment generated CHF3,561.4 million in fiscal 2024/25.
- Demant reported DKK10,022 million in Hearing Aids revenue in 2024.
- Demant estimated 4% global hearing-aid unit growth in 2024.
- The FDA’s OTC hearing-aid category covers adults aged 18 and older with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss.
Contents
- Global hearing aid industry statistics and hearing-loss scale
- Hearing aid demand, rehabilitation and access gaps
- U.S. hearing loss and hearing aid adoption data
- Older-adult hearing aid use and demographic differences
- Hearing aid nonuse, unilateral loss and unmet need
- Hearing aid company revenue, clinics and industry growth
- Hearing aid market outlook and regulatory context
Global Hearing Aid Industry Statistics and Hearing-Loss Scale
The global population affected by hearing loss includes people with any measured degree of loss as well as the smaller group whose loss is disabling or requires rehabilitation. WHO defines disabling hearing loss in this dataset as greater than 35 dB in the better-hearing ear, so the populations below should not be treated as interchangeable.
| Population or measure | Period | Worldwide figure |
|---|---|---|
| Some degree of hearing loss | Current WHO estimate | More than 1.5 billion people |
| Rehabilitation needed for disabling hearing loss | Current WHO estimate | About 430 million people, including 34 million children |
| Children aged 5-19 with hearing loss | Current WHO estimate | Around 95.1 million |
| People older than 60 with disabling hearing loss | Current WHO estimate | More than 25% |
| People with disabling hearing loss living in low- and middle-income countries | Current WHO estimate | Nearly 80% |
Source: WHO, “Deafness and hearing loss”. The children figure includes any reported degree of hearing loss, while the older-adult and geographic shares refer to disabling hearing loss.
WHO forecasts continued growth in both broad and disabling hearing loss. By 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss, and more than 700 million people—about one in 10 people—are projected to have disabling hearing loss; these are forecasts, not observed future counts.
Hearing Aid Demand, Rehabilitation and Access Gaps
The scale of hearing loss does not translate directly into device demand, because hearing aids are only one part of rehabilitation and because production, affordability, clinical access and suitability differ across populations.
- WHO estimates that hearing-aid production meets less than 10% of global demand; this production-demand comparison is not the same as sales or ownership.
- Unaddressed hearing loss creates an estimated US$980 billion in annual global cost, a broad economic-cost estimate rather than hearing-aid spending.
- More than 1 billion young adults worldwide are at risk of permanent avoidable hearing loss from unsafe listening practices; this is a future-risk estimate, not a count of current users.
- WHO estimates that scaling up global ear and hearing care requires less than US$1.40 per person per year in additional investment.
- Over a modeled 10-year horizon, WHO estimates nearly US$16 returned for every US$1 invested in scaling hearing care; this is an economic model, not a realized manufacturer return.
- About 60% of childhood hearing loss is due to avoidable causes, according to WHO’s current estimate.
WHO’s broader assistive-technology figures show why hearing-aid statistics should not be used as a proxy for all device access. More than 2.5 billion people currently need one or more assistive products, rising to an estimated 3.5 billion by 2050, while access ranges from as little as 3% in some low-income countries to 90% in some high-income countries; those figures cover assistive products generally, not hearing aids alone.
Source: WHO, “Assistive technology”.
U.S. Hearing Loss and Hearing Aid Adoption Data
The 2019 Global Burden of Disease analysis provides modeled national estimates for the United States. Its coverage estimate is not a sales measure, and the reported uncertainty intervals matter when interpreting the results.
| U.S. measure | 2019 estimate | Reported uncertainty or definition |
|---|---|---|
| People with hearing loss | 72.88 million | 95% UI: 68.53-77.30 million |
| Prevalence in total population | 22.2% | 95% UI: 20.9%-23.6% |
| Years lived with disability | 2.24 million YLDs | Modeled burden metric |
| Share of total U.S. YLDs | 3.6% | 95% UI: 2.8%-4.7% |
| People with mild-to-profound loss using a hearing aid | 9.7% | 95% UI: 8.6%-11.0% |
The same analysis estimated age-standardized prevalence at 17.7% among U.S. males and 11.9% among U.S. females in 2019. Mild cases represented 64.3% of U.S. hearing-loss cases, and tinnitus was reported as a comorbidity for an estimated 32.5% of people with hearing loss.
Occupational noise exposure accounted for an estimated 11.2% of U.S. hearing-loss YLDs in 2019. That is an attributable-burden estimate, not the share of all cases among people exposed to workplace noise.
Older-Adult Hearing Aid Use and Demographic Differences
Older-adult estimates vary with the sample, age threshold, audiometric definition and device-use question. A nationally representative 2021 NHATS sample included 2,803 participants and found that 65.3% of U.S. adults aged 71 and older had at least some hearing loss.
Among those older adults with hearing loss, 29.2% used hearing aids in 2021, corresponding to an estimated 6.4 million people. Within the full age-71-and-older population, mild hearing loss affected 37.0%, moderate hearing loss 24.1% and severe hearing loss 4.2%; among adults aged 90 and older, hearing loss affected 96.2%.
Source: “Prevalence of Hearing Loss and Hearing Aid Use Among US Medicare Beneficiaries Aged 71 Years and Older”. The estimates are weighted, and hearing-aid use was self-reported.
A separate audiometry-based NHANES analysis covering noninstitutionalized civilian U.S. adults from 2017 through March 2020 found that 73.7% of adults aged 70 and older had hearing loss. Among adults aged 70 and older with nonprofound loss, 31.3% used a hearing assistance device.
The same study found that adults aged 80 and older had 6.3 times the odds of hearing loss compared with adults aged 70-74, while adults with less than a ninth-grade education had 3.8 times the odds compared with college graduates or above. These are adjusted associations and odds ratios, not risk ratios.
Hearing Aid Nonuse, Unilateral Loss and Unmet Need
Unilateral hearing loss can fall outside broad adoption statistics because a person may hear normally in one ear, even when the other ear has an audiometric loss. In pooled NHANES cycles from 2005-06, 2009-10 and 2011-12, unilateral hearing loss affected 7.2% of U.S. adults, including 5.7% with mild loss and 1.5% with moderate-or-worse loss.
| Pooled U.S. unilateral-loss measure | Share |
|---|---|
| Adults with unilateral hearing loss | 7.2% |
| Adults with mild unilateral hearing loss | 5.7% |
| Adults with moderate-or-worse unilateral hearing loss | 1.5% |
| Adults with unilateral hearing loss using hearing aids | 2.0% |
| People with mild unilateral loss using hearing aids | 1.4% |
| People with moderate unilateral loss using hearing aids | 4.2% |
Only 11% of people with unilateral hearing loss and at least moderate subjective hearing difficulty wore hearing aids. The subgroup combines audiometric unilateral loss with self-reported difficulty, and the underlying use definitions varied by survey cycle.
In pooled NHIS data from 2007-2018, 76.6% of U.S. men reporting trouble hearing had never used hearing aids, compared with 79.5% of U.S. women reporting trouble hearing. These are self-reported trouble-hearing and aid-history measures, not audiometric prevalence.
Source: “Prevalence of adult unilateral hearing loss and hearing aid use in the United States”.
Hearing Aid Company Revenue, Clinics and Industry Growth
Company reports provide operating-scale indicators, but they are not interchangeable with a global market total. Sonova and Demant also use different segment boundaries, so their figures should be read as company-specific disclosures.
| Company measure | Period | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Sonova Hearing Instruments business | Fiscal 2024/25 | CHF1,821.4 million |
| Sonova Audiological Care business | Fiscal 2024/25 | CHF1,487.5 million |
| Sonova Consumer Hearing business | Fiscal 2024/25 | CHF252.5 million |
| Sonova total Hearing Instruments segment | Fiscal 2024/25 | CHF3,561.4 million |
| Sonova total sales | Fiscal 2024/25 | CHF3,865.4 million |
Source: Sonova Annual Report 2024/25, “2.3 Revenue”. Total sales include cochlear implants and other reported businesses.
Demant reported DKK10,022 million in Hearing Aids revenue in 2024, with 2% growth in local currencies. Its Hearing Care business reported DKK9,932 million and grew 9% in local currencies; the latter includes retail hearing-care operations and services.
Demant also reported that its hearing aids improved the lives of 11 million people in 2024 and that its clinics tested 1.5 million people worldwide. The company operated more than 4,000 hearing-care clinics in more than 25 countries.
Source: Demant Annual Report 2024. These are company-reported activity and impact measures, not independently audited global prevalence counts.
Hearing Aid Market Outlook and Regulatory Context
Demant estimated that the global hearing-aid market grew 4% in units in 2024. The estimate was based on available market statistics covering about two-thirds of the market and company assumptions, so it is not an independently produced market forecast.
The company’s structural global hearing-aid unit-growth range is 4%-6% per year. This is a company outlook rather than an independently produced forecast, and it should be distinguished from WHO’s population forecasts for hearing loss.
In the United States, the FDA’s OTC hearing-aid category applies to adults aged 18 and older with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss. The rule became effective October 17, 2022, and defines regulatory eligibility rather than measuring consumer uptake or unit sales.
Source: Demant Annual Report 2024 and FDA, “OTC Hearing Aids: What You Should Know”.