WHO Grades of Hearing Loss
Applies the WHO grades of hearing loss to measured thresholds.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Right ear average over the four frequencies, if already worked out
- 10 dB
- Left ear average over the four frequencies, if already worked out
- 90 dB
Result: one ear
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Under 20 dB
- Grade 0, no impairment, read from the better ear.
- 20 to under 35
- Grade 1, mild. Mild starts at 20 dB here; the earlier grading started at 26, so that band disappears against the old line.
- 35 to under 50
- Grade 2, moderate.
- 50 to under 65
- Grade 3, moderately severe.
- 65 to under 80
- Grade 4, severe.
- 80 to under 95
- Grade 5, profound.
- 95 and above
- Grade 6, complete or total.
- One ear only
- A better ear under 20 dB with a worse ear at 35 dB or more is a separate category, not a grade. On the bilateral scale it would read as grade 0 or grade 5, and neither describes it.
- The better ear
- The grade is the better ear and only the better ear. Reading the worse one over-calls every asymmetric loss.
- Four frequencies
- The average is over 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz. Dropping 4 kHz under-calls hearing loss caused by noise or by age.
What you enter
- Right ear threshold at 0.5 kHz
- Right ear threshold at 1 kHz
- Right ear threshold at 2 kHz
- Right ear threshold at 4 kHz
- Left ear threshold at 0.5 kHz
- Left ear threshold at 1 kHz
- Left ear threshold at 2 kHz
- Left ear threshold at 4 kHz
The other 2 fields
- Right ear average over the four frequencies, if already worked out
- Left ear average over the four frequencies, if already worked out
How this is calculated
World Health Organization. World report on hearing. Geneva: WHO; 2021. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.