Hearing aid market study of Western Europe 2015 vs 2014

2015 witnessed a 4% increase in sales over the previous year; stron results in The Netherlands, the UK private sector, Italy, France and Switzerland provided the biggest contributions to the increase.

This year’s study of hearing aid sales in Western Europehas revealed sales of 3,665,000 units in 2015, a moderateincrease of 4.1% over the 2014 figure of 3,519,000 units.It should be noted that this latter figure for 2014 is slightlylower than that reported last year due to updates receivedafter the report was published. The more moderate increaseof 4.1% was perhaps to be expected due to the abnormallyhigh increase of 12.2% in the previous year.

Countries making the main contribution to the growthin 2015 were the Netherlands at 13.8%, Switzerland at11.1%, France at 9.1%, Italy at 8% and UK private at 7.4%.In the Netherlands, the considerable increase of 13.8%was surprising in that the Dutch market is in the process ofchange as regards the criteria for qualification, which are tobe reviewed again in 2016. Sales in the last quarter of 2015were much higher than in previous quarters due to the rushto use up health insurance “allowance” by year end.

In Switzerland, one consideration for the increase could bethat people who bought a hearing aid in 2011, when therewere peak sales due to the system change (90’000 units+), now have an aid of 4+ years and have renewed the device.Secondly, multinationals have been very aggressive incampaigns on price offerings, attracting consumers

Following a year of 5.8% growth, sales in France grew by9.1%, continuing the trend of 2014. Despite the lack ofreimbursement in France from the universal health coverageand the private insurances, the high-quality of the servicesdelivered by the audiologists is encouraging the complianceindex and the satisfaction of hearing impaired people. Thecompliance index is especially high in France in view of thesatisfaction rate. Then, when most patients use their devices,satisfaction is high. This results in a virtuous circle enablingfitting of a larger proportion of the population.

In Italy, the main reason for the significant growth of 8% isthe success of Amplifon which has been much publicised.In the UK, sales in the private sector increased from 257,000in 2014 to 276,000 in 2015, growth of 7.4%. However,public sales (NHS), increased by only 3.7% to 1.311 million, asecond year of low growth following the high growth years of2012 and 2013. The healthy increase in private sales can be attributed to increased activity level by one or two of the largeretail chains. Total sales in the UK reached 1.587 million, anincrease of 4.3% over 2014.

Sales in Spain grew by 2.6% to 195,000, a moderateincrease following some years of low growth. It is importantto bear in mind that the Spanish market continues to beespecially opaque. A recent study by a group of independentpractices indicates an annual growth of 3%. RIC modelswere the most demanded and they show the biggest growth,having tripled in five years.

It is unusual for Germany not to have signifi cant growth but isworthy of mention; sales could not maintain the momentumof the previous years, when there were increases of 8.4% in2013 and 23% in 2014, and sales declined by 2.1% in 2015.Comparison of sales and growth between Europe and theUSA in 2014 reveals that, contrary to 2014, the USA grew ata higher rate than Western Europe, 7.2% vs 4.0%. Five yeartrends are also interesting in that Europe has grown by 40%since 2009 whereas the USA has grown by 28% in the sameperiod.

The growth in BTE sales in the USA continues, with furtherincrease of 2% in 2015, and has now reached 79% of sales.This is in comparison with Europe where BTE have alsogrown by 2% but sales stand at 86% of sales.

BTE growth can still be attributed to the rise in sales of RIC/RITE instruments, which have continued to establish a strongand positive position in the market with sales already closeto 64% of total sales in the USA and approaching 60% inEurope.

Last year, I estimated that sales in the European Unionfor 2014 were 5,118,000 and my estimate for 2015 isca. 5,326,000. When reviewing the EU, I include sales inWestern Europe, per the attached matrix (3,665,000), salesin the additional 12 Euro countries (250K), public sales (NHS)in the UK (1,311,000) and my estimate of unreported sales inEurope (100K). Thus, total sales in the EU in 2015 increasedby 3.8% to 5.313M. This is about 44% of world sales, whichare estimated as ca.12.25M in 2015.

In the past year or so we have been discussing the series ofEuroTrak studies commissioned by EHIMA and carried out bythe Swiss market research company Anovum. The studiescover hearing loss prevalence, adoption rates, hearing loss population demography, factors infl uencing purchase ofhearing aids and satisfaction rates.

I mentioned last year that there had been a further phase,EuroTrak 2015, which was carried out in the UK, France,Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Germany; and it is worthrepeating the initial comments on the UK 2015 results fromSøren Hougaard, Secretary General of EHIMA:

“The ‘basic data’ about prevalence, adoption rate, satisfactionrates etc. remains pretty stable. More interesting are some ofthe new topics, such as better quality of sleep, tremendoussatisfaction with regard to improved quality of life, the factthat people with hearing aids are not ‘bullied’ or teased, buthearing impaired without hearing aids are. A great PR storyin itself. Also the confi rmation that people with hearing aidsare less at risk of developing depressive symptoms, lessinclined to get dementia, and less ‘worn out’ in the evenings,physically and mentally.

All in all, this begins to form the picture of what you couldperhaps call a ‘bigger story’, namely that hearingaids are not only good for correcting hearing loss,but in fact have a number of non-auditory benefi tscontributing to better and more active lives, betterquality of life, and better overall health. A quiteambitious claim and surely not one that we hear muchin the public debate.”

The results of the studies in Europe were reported inAudiology Worldnews and Audio Infos in detail. Keyconclusions were that the UK had highest adoption rate andbetter quality of life, France had the highest satisfaction rateand Germany had the highest binaural rate.

After a solid 2015, what will 2016 bring?

After three good years of growth, 6.4% in 2013, 12.2% in2014 and 4.1% in 2015, the expectation is that the positivetrend will continue in 2016.

Lastly, my usual qualifi cation that the availability ofinformation on hearing aid sales in Europe is limited, only afew countries having formal reporting systems. This studyuses data collected by Industry Associations plus that frominformal but informed sources.