What Percent of Hearing Loss Qualifies for VA Disability?

For VA disability purposes, hearing loss qualifies when your audiogram crosses one of three specific thresholds: an auditory threshold of 40 decibels or higher at any single tested frequency, thresholds of 26 decibels or higher at three or more tested frequencies, or a Maryland CNC speech recognition score below 94 percent.¹ Meeting one of those numbers is what makes the loss ratable at all. The percentage the VA then assigns runs from 0 to 100 in ten-point increments, and it comes out of a fixed lookup formula rather than a judgment call. Most veterans with service-connected hearing loss land at 0 or 10 percent.

The Three Thresholds That Make Hearing Loss Ratable

38 CFR 3.385 sets the entry gate. Your audiogram has to hit at least one of the following:

An auditory threshold of 40 decibels or higher at any one of the tested frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hz).
Auditory thresholds of 26 decibels or higher at three or more of those same frequencies.
A Maryland CNC speech recognition score below 94 percent.

If none of those conditions are met, the VA does not treat the hearing impairment as a ratable disability, no matter how much difficulty you notice day to day.¹ Measurable loss is not the same thing as qualifying loss. Plenty of veterans have some drop in their hearing and still fall short of these numbers.

The exam itself has to be done by a state-licensed audiologist and must include both pure tone audiometry and the Maryland CNC controlled speech discrimination test, performed without hearing aids.²³ The pure tone test produces four numbers, one at each of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz, and their average is your puretone threshold average. The Maryland CNC produces a percentage. Those two figures for each ear are what the rating formula runs on.

How the VA Turns Your Numbers Into a Percentage

Once you’re through the gate, the rating is mechanical. The VA uses two tables in 38 CFR 4.85, and the same math applies to every claim.

Table VI

For each ear, the VA plots your puretone threshold average against your speech discrimination percentage on Table VI. The intersection gives that ear a Roman numeral from I (least impaired) to XI (most impaired).²

Table VII

The two Roman numerals then feed into Table VII, with the better ear on one axis and the worse ear on the other. Where they meet is your rating, from 0 to 100 percent in ten-point steps. If only one ear is service-connected, the other is treated as Roman numeral I for this calculation.²

This is where expectations often part ways with results. Reaching even a 10 percent rating generally takes a Roman numeral of at least II in one ear and III or higher in the other. Mild-to-moderate loss in both ears commonly produces a 0 percent rating. A 0 percent outcome is not a denial of service connection; the loss is recognized, but the formula produces a noncompensable rating at that severity. A 100 percent rating for hearing loss alone effectively requires near-total deafness in both ears.

Exceptional Patterns That Can Raise Your Rating

38 CFR 4.86 recognizes two patterns where the standard Table VI calculation understates the disability, and it lets the VA use an alternative table:

If your puretone threshold is 55 decibels or higher at all four of the tested frequencies (1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz), the VA calculates the Roman numeral under both Table VI and Table VIA (which uses only the puretone average and ignores the speech score) and takes the higher result.
If your puretone threshold is 30 decibels or less at 1000 Hz but 70 decibels or more at 2000 Hz, the VA again compares Table VI and Table VIA, takes the higher Roman numeral, and then bumps it up by one additional level.

Each ear is evaluated separately under these rules.⁴ The steep high-frequency drop pattern is common with blast noise exposure, where low frequencies stay relatively intact but high frequencies are badly damaged. If your audiogram fits either pattern, check that the rater actually applied 4.86. It is one of the more frequently overlooked provisions.

What a 0 Percent Rating Still Gets You

A 0 percent service-connected rating means the VA acknowledges your hearing loss was caused by your service, even though the formula does not produce monthly compensation. That acknowledgment opens the door to VA health care, travel pay reimbursement for approved medical appointments, VA dental and vision care, and Veterans Affairs Life Insurance.⁵ Veterans enrolled in VA health care are eligible for hearing aids at no cost, including repairs and batteries, whether or not the hearing loss rating is compensable.⁶

A 0 percent rating also fixes a baseline. If your hearing gets worse, you can file for an increased rating without having to re-establish that the loss came from service in the first place.

Tinnitus Is Rated Separately

Tinnitus, the persistent ringing, buzzing, or hissing in the ears, is rated separately from hearing loss under Diagnostic Code 6260. The VA assigns a flat 10 percent for recurrent tinnitus, whether the sound is heard in one ear, both ears, or inside the head. That 10 percent is the ceiling; there is no higher schedular rating regardless of how severe the tinnitus is.

You do not need documented hearing loss to receive a tinnitus rating, and many veterans carry both. The two ratings combine under the VA’s combined ratings formula. If ringing is part of your symptom picture, file for it alongside the hearing loss claim.

What Each Rating Pays

Monthly compensation for a veteran with no dependents, effective December 1, 2025:⁷

10%: $180.42
20%: $356.66
30%: $552.47
40%: $795.84
50%: $1,132.90
60%: $1,435.02
70%: $1,808.45
80%: $2,102.15
90%: $2,362.30
100%: $3,938.58

Rates go up with a spouse, children, or dependent parents. Veterans with complete deafness in both ears may also qualify for Special Monthly Compensation under 38 U.S.C. 1114(k), which adds $139.87 per month. The bar for SMC-K is high: “deafness of both ears” means absence of both air and bone conduction, effectively no measurable hearing.⁸⁹

Qualifying Numbers Are Not Enough on Their Own

Meeting the 3.385 thresholds only gets you halfway. You also have to establish that the hearing loss is connected to your service. The VA requires three elements:

A current diagnosis from an audiometric exam that meets 38 CFR 3.385.
An in-service event that could have caused the loss, such as exposure to gunfire, explosions, aircraft, or heavy machinery.
A medical nexus opinion linking the current loss to that in-service event.

The nexus opinion is where claims tend to succeed or fail. The provider needs to say the hearing loss is “at least as likely as not” related to service, which the VA reads as a 50 percent or greater probability.¹⁰ “It could be related” does not carry the same weight as a direct statement that military noise exposure more likely than not caused the condition. Service medical records, post-service audiograms showing progression, a military occupational specialty with obvious noise exposure, and statements from family or coworkers who noticed the decline all help.

So the short answer to what percent of hearing loss qualifies for VA disability is this: qualifying is about hitting one of the three audiogram thresholds in 38 CFR 3.385, and the percentage you receive after that is whatever Tables VI and VII produce from your specific numbers. For most veterans, that ends up at 0 or 10 percent, with higher ratings reserved for severe bilateral loss or the exceptional patterns in 4.86.

1
eCFR. 38 CFR 3.385 – Disability Due to Impaired Hearing
2
eCFR. 38 CFR 4.85 – Evaluation of Hearing Impairment
3
Department of Veterans Affairs. Audio Examination Handbook of Standard Procedures and Best Practices
4
eCFR. 38 CFR 4.86 – Exceptional Patterns of Hearing Impairment
5
Department of Veterans Affairs. Non-Compensable Disability
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Department of Veterans Affairs. Hearing Aids – Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services
7
Department of Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Special Monthly Compensation Rates
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eCFR. 38 CFR 3.350 – Special Monthly Compensation Ratings
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Department of Veterans Affairs. Eligibility for VA Disability Benefits