Age-related hearing loss

Once you get over the age of 50, cells in your inner ear (cochlea) begin to deteriorate, and so your hearing tends to get worse. Of people over 50 years old, over 40% will experience a degree of hearing loss.

There are 4 million people in the UK whose level of hearing loss means that they would benefit from a hearing aid, but they do not use one. You can read more about age-related hearing loss (new window) on the RNID website.

Other factors

Besides age, there are many other factors that can cause hearing loss. These include genetics, exposure to excessive noise and ear problems.

If you think your hearing loss is caused by one of these factors, you can read more about possible causes of deafness and hearing loss (new window) on the RNID website.

What next?

RNID has lots of resources if you want to find out how to manage hearing loss. These may be helpful whether you are losing your hearing, or if you think a partner or someone close to you may have a hearing loss.

There's also advice in this section from the nation's favourite agony aunt, Claire Rayner: check our Ask Claire pages.