One in four people in the world will suffer from hearing problems by 2050, the World Health Organization warned after the first-ever global report on hearing.
According to the report, problems such as infections, diseases, birth defects, noise exposure and lifestyle choices can be prevented by extra investment in prevention and treatment.
One in five people worldwide has hearing problems currently, it said. However, the report said the number of people with hearing loss may increase more than 1.5-fold during the next three decades to 2.5 billion people, up from 1.6 billion in 2019. Further, the report said that the expected rise will be due to demographic and population trends and in order to contain it, the report proposed a package of measures, which it calculated would cost $1.33 per person per year.