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Demographic Details Of young Australians aged less than 26 years with a hearing loss, who have been fitted with a hearing aid or cochlear implant at 31 December 2015


Summary: This circular contains summary data on children and young adults fitted with hearing aids or cochlear implants in Australia, who were under the age of 26 years at 31 December 2015 and who were provided with audiological and hearing aid or speech processor support services through Australian Hearing. On January 1, 2012, the upper age limit for eligibility for Australian Hearing’s paediatric program was extended from 21 to 26 years of age. While the demographic data in this document can be considered to cover all young Australians under the age of 21 who use a hearing aid or cochlear implant, the same cannot be said for those in the older age group, since some of this older age group may have elected to continue services with their existing private provider or may have not yet established contact with Australian Hearing. The data provides information at national and state / territory level and has been collated from Australian Hearing’s electronic client and record management system databases (as a “snapshot”) and includes: o o o o

Number of hearing impaired children Number of newly fitted children in the 2015 calendar year Fitting rates of children and young adults with hearing impairment Hearing loss distribution of aided/implanted children and young adults

Differences in other data and calculations shown for similar birth years in previous reports prior to 2007 are due to the timing of the ‘snapshot” nature of the report (data were previously collated on 31 March each year) – i.e. the dynamics of the child population characteristics and demography in the database, updated information and calculation rounding at the time the report was compiled. In particular, actions across the organization that have taken place to review and update the information on all aided child clients in the database, have also affected the “snapshot” counts and calculations. The major characteristics of the report show:  All aided and implanted children and young adults less than 26 years of age at 31 December 2015 who are identified as being ‘current and active’ as at 31 December 2015  Data on children and young adults who were first fitted with hearing aids from 1 January to 31 December 2015. Care should be taken when comparing information from previous reports, and particularly prior to 2007, due to their differing parameters. Taking the above comments into account this report shows that on 31 December 2015 Australian Hearing provided audiological services, hearing aid and cochlear implant support to 23,099 citizens and permanent residents under 26 years of age, of which 2,182 (9.5%) were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.  20,386 were aged under 21 years; o 52.4% were male o 10.1% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander  2,713 were aged from 21-25 years o 48.5% were male o 4.8% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders


During 2015 a total of 2867 clients were fitted with hearing aids for the first time. 379 of these were children born in 2015. Of the clients first fitted during 2015,  

2697 were aged under 21 at the time of first fitting 170 were aged 21-25 years at the time of first fitting

Profile of the total client base. At 31 December 2015, Australian Hearing supported the hearing rehabilitation needs of 23,099 citizens and permanent residents under 26 years of age. Figure 1 and Table 1 show the distribution of clients by state/territory of residence at 31 December 2015. Tables 2 displays the distribution of clients aged less than 21 years, which can be assumed to represent all aided/implanted children. Table 3 displays the distribution of clients aged 21-25 years, but may not necessarily represent all Australians with hearing loss in that age group, since some may not have returned to receive service from Australian Hearing following the extension of eligibility during 2012.

Figure 1: Aided/Implanted Young Australians less than 26 years of age, by state/territory.

Quantity Number Percentage

NSW 6686 28.9

VIC 5346 23.1

QLD 5161 22.3

WA 2686 11.6

SA 1568 6.8

TAS 408 1.8

ACT 534 2.3

NT National 710 23099 3.1 100.0

Table 1: Distribution of Aided/Implanted Young Australians under 26 years of age, by state/territory.


NSW 5825 28.6

VIC 4636 22.7

QLD 4618 22.7

WA 2458 12.1

SA 1376 6.7

TAS 348 1.7

ACT 477 2.3

Table 2: Distribution of Aided/Implanted Young Australians aged less than 21 years by state/territory

NT National 648 20386 3.2 100.0



NSW 861 31.7

VIC 710 26.2

QLD 543 20.0

WA 228 8.4

SA 192 7.1

TAS 60 2.2

ACT 57 2.1

NT National 62 2713 2.3 100.0

Table 3: Distribution of Aided/implanted Young Australians aged from 21 to less than 26 years by state/territory

Nationally 11.7% of clients are aged from 21 – 25 years. The distribution by state/territory is shown in Figure 2

Figure 2: Proportion of total Aided/Implanted Young Australians in each state/territory who are aged 21 to under 26 years

Table 4 provides further detail about the distribution of aided clients by year of birth, state and territory.


Birth year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total

NSW 162 180 172 160 187 283 286 297 320 314 324 330 340 329 307 309 348 335 319 290 244 234 183 162 145 126 6686

VIC 131 142 135 153 149 243 226 237 248 245 242 262 249 243 262 264 264 269 249 231 182 183 160 154 147 76 5346

QLD 103 121 103 105 111 169 177 193 202 218 265 249 266 273 273 289 295 310 280 277 220 152 154 137 127 92 5161

WA 42 47 51 46 42 105 121 113 137 148 171 153 147 156 149 152 146 149 124 118 90 75 44 52 56 52 2686

SA 40 33 40 40 39 71 66 74 65 66 72 96 69 111 83 69 82 74 68 80 65 44 34 38 31 18 1568

TAS 15 15 7 11 12 19 23 20 24 23 14 14 10 24 24 24 27 17 17 20 14 12 5 3 9 5 408

ACT 13 14 10 11 9 22 26 27 19 25 23 18 26 22 27 28 29 36 24 29 26 16 15 11 20 8 534

NT National 18 524 12 564 6 524 13 539 13 562 18 930 19 944 22 983 15 1030 21 1060 36 1147 30 1152 28 1135 45 1203 43 1168 54 1189 47 1238 52 1242 53 1134 69 1114 31 872 28 744 17 612 9 566 9 544 2 379 710 23099

Table4: All clients aged less than 26 years who have been fitted with a hearing aid and/or cochlear implant, National Summary by State/Territory and Birth Year at 31 December 2015

Gender While over half (52.0%) of the total client base is male, this ratio is not preserved for the clients aged 21 – 25, of whom 48.5% are male. (Tables 5-7)

Gender Male Female Other*

NSW 53.8 46.2 0.0

VIC 51.6 48.4 0.0

QLD 51.6 48.4 0.0

WA 52.2 47.8 0.0

SA 48.5 51.5 0.0

TAS 51.5 48.5 0.0

ACT 49.4 50.2 0.4

NT National 49.9 52.0 50.0 48.0 0.1 0.0

Table 5: Gender of aided/implanted clients under 26years of age by State/Territory as a percentage of the client base.


Gender Male Female Other*

NSW 54.3 45.7 0.0

VIC 52.2 47.8 0.0

QLD 51.7 48.2 0.0

WA 52.0 48.0 0.0

SA 49.1 50.9 0.0

TAS 52.0 48.0 0.0

ACT 50.5 49.1 0.4

NT National 51.9 52.4 48.0 47.6 0.2 0.0

Table 6: Gender of aided/implanted clients under 21years of age by State/Territory as a percentage of the client base.

Male Female Other*

NSW 50.3 49.7 0.0

VIC 47 53 0.0

QLD 50.1 49.9 0.0

WA 53.5 46.5 0.0

SA 44.8 55.2 0.0

TAS 48.3 51.7 0.0

ACT 40.4 59.6 0.0

NT National 29 48.5 71 51.5 0.0 0.0

Table 7: Gender of aided/implanted clients 21 to