Statistics

General Statistics

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ extimates that 34 million Americans have a significant hearing loss. Of these, almost 6 million are profoundly deaf.
There are more than 800,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals in Florida and more than 340,000 of them live in the Tampa Bay Area.
90% of all deaf children are born into hearing families.
Of those families, only 10% ever learn to effectively communicate with their
deaf child. The other 90% do not.
American Sign Language is the third most commonly used language in theUnited States.
Deafness is the No. 1 birth defect in theUnited States.
75 – 85% of deaf high school graduates only read at a 3rd – 4th grade level.
Deafness is the most costly single disability in terms of special education costs, averaging $25,000 per year per child, compared to $5,100 for a normal hearing child.
The average lifetime cost to society of a child born deaf in terms of medical, educational, and productivity losses is $1,020,000.

The Prevalence of Hearing Loss in Children

Over 1 million children in the United States have a hearing loss.
6 in every 1000 infants born in the United States has some degree of hearing loss.
About 3 out of every 1000 infants born in the United States has a severe or
profound hearing loss.
83 out of every 1000 children in the United States have what is termed an educationally significant hearing loss.

Myths Regarding Deafness

Click here for some common misconceptions about deafness and people who are deaf.

Sources:

Project HOPE, Policy Analysis Brief, April, 2000.

Project HOPE, Calculations from the 1990-91 National Health Survey and U.S. Census, 1991.

Schein, J., and Delk, M. [1974]. The Deaf population of the United States. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf.

U.S.Public Health Service, [1990]. Healthy People 2000. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Vital & Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1994.

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/hearing.asp (National Institutde on Deafness and
Other Communications Disorders)

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