Degrees of Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can range from mild to profound.

0-25 dB	Normal range of hearing
26-40 dB	Mild hearing loss, difficulty hearing soft speech and some speech in noise. More serious for infants and young children who need to hear speech in order to learn to talk.
41-55 dB	Moderate hearing loss, difficulty hearing conversational speech.
56-70 dB	Moderately-severe hearing loss, great difficulty hearing speech in both quiet and noisy environments.
71-90 dB	Severe hearing loss, cannot hear most environmental sounds or normal speech without the use of hearing aids or assistive listening devices.
91 + dB	Profound hearing loss, this is what most people think of as “deaf.” Cannot hear environmental sounds or speech.