The hearing thief is an insidious character of no exact embodiment; his caricature and gender are of my choosing. He is not a thief who can hear but is defined here as the villain, who from his victims he steals their hearing, party or fully. Sometimes this thief’s actions are swift and devastating with one major intrusion rendering the hearing as deaf. More often his encroachment is less dramatic, harder to identify, as he only takes very small amounts in a constant repetitive pattern. In the bit-by-bit scenario the victim initially hardly notices his pilfering, but eventually, a threshold is reached and there’s no denying that something vital has been taken. His actions span all age groups; even the unborn are not spared. Male and female are both targeted and while age, socio-economic and ethnicity factors do impact upon susceptibility, no one is guaranteed immunity.


His elusive nature, the varying level of intrusion and often the victim’s self-denial of his presence make exact figures of the hearing thief’s level of encroachments difficult. While there are no absolute precise intrusion statistics for our villain there is sufficient data from reliable sources (1) to give a reasonably accurate count. The authoritative sources reveal some staggering facts:
  • 1 in 6 Australians is affected by hearing loss - hearing loss is defined as a total or partial inability to correctly hear sound in one or both ears.
  • 3 in every 4 people over 70 are affected by hearing loss.
  • The real financial cost of hearing loss is $11.75 billion or 1.4 percent of GDP per annum.
  • 3.55 million Australians are Deaf or have a hearing loss.
  • Nearly half the people who are Deaf or have a hearing loss are of working age (15-64 years).


His elusive nature, the varying level of intrusion