In honor of World Hearing Day, Mimi Hearing Technologies, a Germany-based company that develops hearing enhancement technology for smartphones, analyzed data from their hearing test app and noise pollution data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in order to create the Worldwide Hearing Index.

The data, collected from over 200,000 hearing tests worldwide, ranked average levels of hearing loss for people living in 50 global cities. Participant’s hearing age was calculated based on the difference between their performance on the hearing test and their actual age. Mimi Hearing Technologies found that the average city dweller has a hearing loss equivalent to 10-20 years older than their actual age. With the urban population projected to grow by 1.85% per year between 2015 and 2020, an increasingly large population will be exposed to the detrimental effects that noise pollution has on hearing ability.

“The Average Hearing Loss result was found to have a 64% positive correlation with noise pollution levels in each city, indicating hearing loss may be a direct or indirect outcome of living in these cities,” said the website. “We hope that the study will not only raise awareness to residents of cities and governing institutions, but will act as a call to action for individuals and health care providers to make better investments concerning aural health.”

 

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