Impaired Hearing Increases Across Europe.
It is estimated that, worldwide, there will be more than 700 million people suffering from a hearing loss of more than 25 dB by 2015. In the developed world alone, the number of hearing-impaired people will reach 215 million. Of those, some 90 million will be Europeans, although in developing countries, the number is twice as large.
According to recent surveys, around the world, there were 440 million with hearing damage in 1995, and more than 70 million in Europe in a population of 700 million, whilst in the US, more than 25 million are suffering from deafness causes from a total population of 300 million.
The problem is growing, and some estimates claim that more than 900 million people world-wide will suffer from hearing loss of more than 25 dB in 2025.
More is known about the levels of hearing health in Western Europe and the US than any other part of the world and, overall, more than one European in ten suffers some form of noise induced hearing loss.
Hearing Loss Figures for Europe:
• In the UK, 19 percent of the men and 13 percent of women above 16 years of age report that they suffer from hearing loss.
• A German study indicated that the frequency in Germany may be as high as one in five.
• In Finland, one in seven suffer from varying degrees of hearing loss
• In Italy, one in six is suffering from some form of hearing loss.
• One in ten has hearing loss in Denmark and Sweden.
The healthiest population in hearing terms was found in France where just 7 percent suffer from hearing loss.