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What is the Hearing Number?

Know Your Hearing

Hearing helps us engage with the world and connect with the people in our lives. Yet many of us do not know much about our hearing and how it changes over time. This is in part because there hasn’t been a simple way to understand and talk about our hearing like there is for height, weight, vision, blood pressure, and other key health metrics. That’s where the Hearing Number comes in.

The Hearing Number

The Hearing Number simply tells you the softest speech sound you can hear. You have two Hearing Numbers: one for your right ear and one for your left ear. And they can be as low as -10 and as high as 85 decibels (dB) or more. The higher your Hearing Numbers are, the harder it will be to hear and communicate in noisy places.

-10 to 19 dB

You likely have little to no trouble hearing in noisy places.

20 to 34 dB

You may have some trouble hearing conversations in noisy places.

35 to 49 dB

You may have a lot of trouble hearing and engaging in conversations in noisy places.

50 to 64 dB

You may have severe trouble hearing and engaging in conversations in noisy places.

65 to 79 dB

You may have extreme difficulty hearing and engaging in conversations in noisy places.

80 dB or higher

You may not be able to understand speech and most other environmental sounds in noisy places.

    Your Hearing Numbers Will Change Over Time

    That is right—and it’s not just you. Everybody’s hearing changes over time because the parts of the inner ear that detect sound wear out throughout our lives. Children can hear very soft sounds and could have Hearing Numbers less than 0 dB. But as we get older, everyone’s hearing changes, and our Hearing Numbers get higher.

    Graphic with a range of ages and the average Hearing Number for each age. Age 20, the average Hearing Number is 5. Age 40, the average Hearing Number is 9. Age 60, the average Hearing Number is 16. Age 80, the average Hearing Number is 35.

    The Hearing Number is the PTA4

    The Hearing Number is also known as the 4-frequency pure tone average, or PTA4. The PTA4 is one of many ways that hearing care professionals measure hearing. You may have heard hearing loss described as mild, moderate, or severe. The PTA4 is used to define those broad categories too.

    • Mild, which is a Hearing Number of 20 to 34
    • Moderate, which is a Hearing Number of 35 to 49
    • Moderately severe, which is a Hearing Number of 50 to 64
    • Severe, which is a Hearing Number of 65 to 79
    Source: World report on hearing. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021.
    Decorative image.