Degrees of hearing loss and how to read an audiogram

Degrees and audiograms

What the chart shows, and what the words mean

After a hearing test you are shown a chart called an audiogram, and your results are described with words like mild or moderate. Both are easier to read than they look — and the words are less precise than most people assume.

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What an audiogram shows

Pitch runs left to right, from low sounds to high. Loudness runs top to bottom, from very quiet at the top to very loud at the bottom.

Each mark shows the quietest sound you responded to at that pitch. So the further down the chart a mark sits, the louder that pitch had to be before you heard it — and marks higher up mean you picked up quieter sounds.

An audiogram showing an example hearing test result A chart used to record hearing test results. Pitch runs left to right from 250 to 8000 hertz. Loudness runs top to bottom, so quieter sounds sit higher up. Horizontal bands mark the ranges commonly labelled normal through to profound. An example result is plotted with circles for the right ear and crosses for the left. This is an illustration, not anyone's actual result. Normal Mild Moderate Moderately severe Severe Profound −10 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000 Normal conversation is about this loud A lawnmower is about this loud Right ear Left ear Pitch, low to high (Hz) Quiet to loud (dB)Quieter sounds sit higher up the chart Right ear Left ear

An example only — not anyone's actual result. Each ear is plotted separately, and a line sloping down to the right is a common pattern. Band labels vary between classifications; see the note below.

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Reading your own chart

  • Each ear is plotted separately, usually with different symbols or colours
  • A line that slopes downward to the right is a common pattern — it means higher pitches need to be louder before they are heard
  • A flat line means all pitches are affected fairly similarly
  • Gaps between the two ears are meaningful, which is why they are tested separately

You should never have to interpret this alone. Anyone testing your hearing should go through your own chart with you.

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The words used for severity

Results are grouped into ranges and given names — mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, profound. They are a shorthand for a decibel range, averaged across several pitches.

They are useful for conversation. They are not a precise description of what someone experiences: two people described the same way can cope very differently, because clarity, background noise and both ears working together all matter alongside the numbers.

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Why different sources give different numbers

This is worth knowing, because it causes genuine confusion.

The decibel ranges attached to those severity words are not standardised across every organisation. An older and still widely quoted World Health Organization grading treated hearing of 25 dB or better as no impairment. A later revision lowered the threshold for normal hearing to 20 dB, differentiated the categories in even steps, and added a separate category for hearing loss affecting one ear only.

The practical consequence is that the same audiogram can honestly be labelled differently depending on which classification is being applied. If you are comparing two reports, or a report against something you read online, check which classification each is using before concluding your hearing has changed.

The bands shown on our chart above are indicative and are there to help you read the shape of a result — not to give you a label.

Common questions about results

What do the numbers on an audiogram mean?

The vertical scale is in decibels and represents how loud a sound had to be before you responded to it. Lower numbers at the top mean quieter sounds. It is not a percentage and it is not a score out of a hundred.

A higher decibel number means the sound had to be louder before you heard it, so higher numbers indicate more hearing loss. On the chart this appears further down the page.

It is the first band above normal hearing. Which decibel range that covers depends on the classification being used — the older WHO grading and its later revision draw the line in different places. In everyday terms it usually means quiet speech and conversation in background noise are harder, while ordinary conversation in a quiet room is not.

It is common for the two ears to differ. Ears can be affected by different things, or by the same thing to different degrees. A meaningful difference between the two is something an audiologist will want to look at rather than gloss over.

It means the measurement sits in the first band above normal — not that it does or does not need action. What matters alongside the number is whether you are finding situations difficult. That conversation belongs with whoever tested you.

Related reading

Part of our guide to Hearing loss explained.

Also in this section: Types of hearing loss, Signs of hearing loss, What causes hearing loss, Tinnitus explained.

Unfamiliar term? Every term we use is defined in the Hearing glossary.

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This page is general information. A hearing test measures your own hearing and is the only way to know where yours sits.

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This page is general information, not a diagnosis or individual advice.