In this article
About 12.3 million people in the United States, 3.7% of the civilian population living outside institutions, are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2024. Nearly two thirds of them, 64.1%, are 65 or older. West Virginia has the highest estimated share, 5.9%, statistically tied with New Mexico, Alaska and Montana.
California has the most people with a hearing difficulty, 1,227,200, followed by Texas, Florida and New York. The District of Columbia has the lowest share, 2.0%, then New Jersey at 2.7%.
Key figures
12.3 million
people are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing, 3.7% of the population
64.1%
of them are 65 or older
1 in 5
people 75 and over report being deaf or having serious difficulty hearing
1.7 per 1,000
babies born in 2022 identified as deaf or hard of hearing
- Under 3%
- 3 to 3.5%
- 3.5 to 4%
- 4 to 4.5%
- 4.5 to 5%
- 5% or more
Share of the civilian noninstitutionalized population who are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, tables S1810 and B18102. Each square is one state; size is not population.
Hearing difficulty in every state
| State | People with a hearing difficulty | Share of residents | Share of residents 65 and over |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Virginia | 103,224 | 5.9% (±0.3) | 17.5% |
| New Mexico | 117,581 | 5.6% (±0.3) | 18.0% |
| Alaska | 38,978 | 5.5% (±0.4) | 19.2% |
| Montana | 61,887 | 5.5% (±0.4) | 17.8% |
| Maine | 73,818 | 5.3% (±0.3) | 15.7% |
| Wyoming | 30,354 | 5.3% (±0.4) | 16.7% |
| Oklahoma | 209,482 | 5.2% (±0.2) | 18.0% |
| Kentucky | 233,144 | 5.2% (±0.2) | 17.2% |
| Arkansas | 146,896 | 4.8% (±0.2) | 16.9% |
| Oregon | 202,786 | 4.8% (±0.2) | 15.6% |
| Idaho | 89,650 | 4.5% (±0.3) | 16.5% |
| New Hampshire | 62,363 | 4.5% (±0.3) | 14.4% |
| Alabama | 224,299 | 4.4% (±0.2) | 14.7% |
| Arizona | 323,092 | 4.3% (±0.1) | 14.6% |
| Mississippi | 123,611 | 4.3% (±0.2) | 15.3% |
| Missouri | 263,466 | 4.3% (±0.1) | 14.7% |
| Kansas | 122,636 | 4.2% (±0.2) | 14.5% |
| Louisiana | 187,363 | 4.2% (±0.2) | 14.5% |
| Hawaii | 57,536 | 4.1% (±0.2) | 14.4% |
| Tennessee | 293,993 | 4.1% (±0.1) | 14.8% |
| Nevada | 132,697 | 4.1% (±0.2) | 13.8% |
| South Dakota | 36,817 | 4.1% (±0.3) | 14.8% |
| Vermont | 26,181 | 4.1% (±0.3) | 12.5% |
| Ohio | 460,321 | 3.9% (±0.1) | 12.9% |
| Washington | 308,130 | 3.9% (±0.1) | 14.6% |
| Indiana | 267,647 | 3.9% (±0.1) | 13.8% |
| Michigan | 392,917 | 3.9% (±0.1) | 13.3% |
| South Carolina | 209,693 | 3.9% (±0.2) | 13.1% |
| Nebraska | 76,807 | 3.9% (±0.2) | 14.8% |
| Delaware | 39,778 | 3.8% (±0.3) | 12.2% |
| North Carolina | 415,356 | 3.8% (±0.1) | 13.3% |
| Florida | 875,936 | 3.8% (±0.1) | 12.2% |
| Iowa | 120,652 | 3.8% (±0.2) | 13.3% |
| Pennsylvania | 485,224 | 3.8% (±0.1) | 12.4% |
| Wisconsin | 216,192 | 3.7% (±0.1) | 12.0% |
| North Dakota | 28,293 | 3.6% (±0.3) | 14.3% |
| Colorado | 211,328 | 3.6% (±0.1) | 14.0% |
| Minnesota | 202,267 | 3.5% (±0.1) | 12.9% |
| Texas | 1,068,486 | 3.5% (±0.1) | 14.7% |
| Rhode Island | 37,557 | 3.4% (±0.3) | 12.1% |
| Virginia | 290,298 | 3.4% (±0.1) | 12.3% |
| Georgia | 362,542 | 3.3% (±0.1) | 12.8% |
| Illinois | 397,595 | 3.2% (±0.1) | 11.7% |
| California | 1,227,200 | 3.1% (±0.1) | 12.5% |
| Utah | 107,292 | 3.1% (±0.1) | 15.3% |
| Connecticut | 111,383 | 3.1% (±0.1) | 11.5% |
| New York | 600,999 | 3.1% (±0.1) | 11.0% |
| Massachusetts | 215,704 | 3.1% (±0.1) | 11.2% |
| Maryland | 183,475 | 3.0% (±0.1) | 10.5% |
| New Jersey | 257,947 | 2.7% (±0.1) | 10.3% |
| District of Columbia | 14,006 | 2.0% (±0.4) | 8.8% |
Hearing difficulty by age
| Age | People with a hearing difficulty | Share of that age group |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 | 75,869 | 0.4% |
| 5 to 17 | 321,565 | 0.6% |
| 18 to 34 | 696,625 | 0.9% |
| 35 to 64 | 3,343,502 | 2.6% |
| 65 to 74 | 2,848,387 | 8.1% |
| 75 and over | 5,060,931 | 20.5% |
One in five people 75 and over reports being deaf or having serious difficulty hearing. Because most hearing loss comes with age, most of these people lost their hearing as adults and do not use sign language.
Other national figures, and why they differ
- About 30 million people age 12 and over, 13%, have hearing loss in both ears on a standard hearing test, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), citing a 2011 study. That is higher than the Census figure partly because a hearing test also picks up milder loss, while the Census asks only about serious difficulty, and partly because the NIDCD figure leaves out children under 12.
- About 15% of adults, 37.5 million, report some trouble hearing, according to NIDCD, citing the 2012 National Health Interview Survey.
- Of babies born in 2022, 6,272 were identified as deaf or hard of hearing, 1.7 per 1,000 births, and 98.1% of newborns were screened, according to the CDC's 2022 newborn hearing screening summary.
- More than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, according to NIDCD.
- Fewer than 1 in 3 adults age 70 and over who could benefit from hearing aids has ever used them, according to NIDCD.
How many people use American Sign Language?
No one knows. The Census Bureau does not publish a count of ASL users, and no national survey has ever measured ASL use directly. The figure most often quoted, 250,000 to 500,000, traces back to two disagreeing sources from the 1970s, as Mitchell, Young, Bachleda and Karchmer (2006) showed in Sign Language Studies. The underlying data, a 1972 survey of deaf adults, asked about signing in general, not ASL.
The same researchers concluded that estimates above 500,000 appear to come from treating deafness and ASL use as the same thing, and that the claim that ASL is the third most used language in the U.S. traces to a misreading of a statement to a 1974 Senate hearing.
The newest research estimate, from Mitchell and Young (2023) using National Health Interview Survey data for 2010 to 2018, is that 2.80% of U.S. adults use sign language. That figure covers sign language use of any kind and any fluency, not ASL specifically, so it should not be read as a count of fluent ASL users.
Sign language interpreters
The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) reported 10,049 certified members out of 14,053 total members in its fiscal 2023 annual report, covering July 2022 to June 2023. That is not a count of every ASL interpreter: some work under other credentials or are not members. Certified members include Certified Deaf Interpreters, who are themselves deaf or hard of hearing and often work alongside hearing interpreters; see when a Certified Deaf Interpreter is needed.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, state and local governments and courts, medical practices and law firms must provide effective communication, which often means a qualified sign language interpreter. See ADA effective communication for Deaf clients and ASL vs. Mexican Sign Language.
About the data
- The American Community Survey asks whether each person is "deaf or ... [has] serious difficulty hearing." It is answered by the person or someone in their household, not measured by a hearing test, and it does not separate people who are deaf from people who are hard of hearing.
- The counts cover the civilian population living outside institutions, so people in nursing homes, prisons and the military are not included. Many older people with hearing loss live in nursing homes, so the true number is higher.
- Being deaf in the audiological sense is different from being culturally Deaf or using sign language. These figures measure hearing, not language.
- State estimates have margins of error; differences of a few tenths of a point between states are often not statistically significant.