Deaf Population

How many Deaf people are there?

The Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD) uses the standard rule of “one in ten percent” (or, one percent of the population), with strong disclaimers.

This proportion is generally thought to include the culturally Deaf — those born with no hearing who use American Sign Language as their method of communication, among other characteristics; as well as the “late-deafened” — those who lose their hearing later in life, but who learned and used verbal / written communication throughout the majority of their lives.  The late-deafened may or may not adopt American Sign Language as a method of communication after losing all or most of their hearing and verbal communication is no longer possible.

This statistic is based on the application of U.S. data on the Canadian population.  By this association, assuming Canada’s population in the year 2012 to be approximately 33.5 million, of those, roughly one percent, or 350,000 persons, would be culturally and linguistically Deaf.