Abstract
Epidemiological data are crucial to the planning and implementation of all audiological and education services for hearing-impaired children including the implementation of neonatal hearing screening. This paper presents a review of the relevant literature selected to present data for children with permanent hearing impairment ≥40 dB. In so doing it addresses issues of prevalence, aetiology and demography of relevance to neonatal hearing screening. Difficulties with interpretation of the data are discussed and future directions in epidemiological research are suggested.