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How people are deaf/hard of hearing in Australia? (and in each individual states? NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, WA, TAS and ACT) How many people use electronic hearing devices? (hearing aids/cochlears)
Hello! Thank you for your question about hearing impairment in Australia. The short answer is that there are 3.6mln people in Australia affected by hearing loss, with about 30,000 of them being totally deaf. The estimated number of cochlear implant procedures that will be performed this year is 547. Also, 450,000 hearing aids are prescribed each year, with 34% of people affected by hearing loss using them. Below you will find a deep dive of my methodology and findings.
METHODOLOGY
I focused on searching government and industry reports, as well as trusted media sites that use official data. With this method, I was able to gather information about the overall number of people with hearing loss and total hearing loss. As for the latter, the estimations are from 2017, but the authors made them using an older source and a projected growth rate. They are made for the Aslan users, which is the sign language of the deaf people in Australia.
I also found data about how many hearing aids are prescribed each year and how many cochlear implant surgeries are performed.
Additionally, I used the chart that showed the percentage of people who use hearing aids by age and gender to calculate the overall percentage of people with hearing loss who use such aids. I summed estimated shares for each age group and gender, which gave me 1211. Then I divided the number by 36 (there were 18 age groups and two genders).
1211/36=33,63~34%
The main limitation here is that I had to read percentages for each age group from the chart, so they aren't precise.
As for the number of people with hearing impairment in each state, the only comprehensive source was a government report that used data from 2001 to 2003. It gave numbers and percentages for people with total hearing loss. To provide you with the more recent estimation, I used the total number of deaf people from 2017 article and shares for each state from the older report.
For example, for New South Wales, my calculation was:
For Victoria:
The calculations for every other state followed the same formula.
I was unable to find information about the share of people with any degree of hearing loss for each state. Digging deeper into this would be out of scope for a single Wonder research, as your question was complex and required researching few separate issues and doing calculations. Still, I did dedicate some time to this, and it seems that such data is not available.
PEOPLE AFFECTED BY HEARING LOSS IN AUSTRALIA
Hearing loss is a major problem for the Australian population. There are about 3.6mln people affected by this type of disability, and they generate a cost of $15.9bln for the Australian economy. Furthermore, it is expected that by 2060 the number will grow to 7.8mln, going from one in six to one in five Australians. By age 60, one for every two males is likely to develop hearing loss, compared to one for every three females. Additionally, 50% of young Australians could be affected by it after five years of exposure to loud music, with 37% of all hearing impairments being noise induced.
TOTAL HEARING LOSS BY STATE
Out of all Australians with some kind of hearing impairment, about 30,000 are affected by the total hearing loss. For 2003, the number was only 6,500. Below you will find the share of deaf people for each state:
HEARING AIDS
As for the use electronic devices, hearing aids are most popular, with 450,000 of them prescribed each year. 14% of total health system expenditure on hearing loss goes to them (the estimation was done for the private market).
Out of all the people with hearing loss, approximately 34% use hearing aids. It translates into 1,2mln of Australians. In most age groups, men are more likely to use them than women. Free hearing aids are provided to young Australian, as well as to older ones. It may be why only 21% of working age people use them.
COCHLEAR IMPLANTS
While there is no data available on how many people have such implants, according to the Hearing Care Industry Association, the total number of Australians who will receive them this year is 547. In 2006, there were only 400 such surgeries. As of now, 4% of total hearing-related health system expenditure goes to cochlear implant procedures.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, there are 3.6mln Australians who are affected by hearing loss, with 30,000 being totally deaf. Out of those who have this disability, approximately 34%, or 1,2mln, use hearing aids. Also, about 547 cochlear implant procedures will be performed this year. Thank you for using Wonder! Let us know if we can help with anything else.