Repeated exposure to sounds that are above 85 decibels can damage hearing. Florida has more people with serious hearing loss than any other state except Texas and California. According to Hearing Research.org, 37.5 million American adults report some hearing loss, which is equivalent to 15% of the adult population.
HearingResearch.org studied which U.S. states have the highest number of people living with serious hearing loss. They did that using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2023 Annual Disability Statistics Collection.
Florida was number 3, with 810,000 people living with serious hearing loss. Of the top 5 most populous states Florida is the only one with more than 3.7% of its population with serious hearing loss.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, some signs of noise-induced hearing loss include: sounds may become distorted or muffled, finding it hard to understand other people when they are talking, or having to turn up the volume on the television.
Sounds that are likely to cause hearing loss include long or repeated exposure to concerts, loud headphones, and motorcycles.
