Analyses of the sector carried out by the scientific community and by financial analysts show that hearing aid industry is a sector which is still very much open and far from being fully exploited; the growth in the number of potential clients has been estimated at more than 10% p.a. in the coming years. The increase can be explained in several ways, in terms of demographics, behaviour, and also culture.

On one hand, the number of people with impaired hearing is likely to increase both because of the increased life expectancy of the population which will inevitably lead to an increase in the number of elderly people who are more likely to have hearing difficulties and also because of the increase in noise pollution.

On the other hand, information campaigns organised by health authorities will lead to an increased acceptance of hearing problems and a resulting acceptance of the medical solutions to those problems. Today, according to research done by the medical community, 10% of the population of Western countries need at least one hearing aid and, for 70% of these, two hearing aids would be even better. However, because of psychological problems or because of difficulties in accepting a problem which is still seen as a handicap to be hidden, only a small proportion of these actually use a hearing aid, a proportion which varies from country to country but which is somewhere between 10 and 25%.

Constant technological innovation, changes in habits, and an increase in the number of elderly people are therefore the keys to future progress in this sector and Amplifon could be the first to take advantage of this, thanks to its pre-eminent position.

Market	Population (millions)	Hypoacusis sufferers (millions) (1)	Total potential demand (millions) (2)	Annual potential demand (millions) (3)	Present annual market (4)	Penetration (5)
USA	275	27,5	46,8	9,4	1,9	21%
Canada	30	3,0	5,1	1,0	0,15	15%
Total Western Europe	420	42,0	71,4	14,3	2,1	15%
Japan	128	12,8	21,8	4,4	0,4	9%
Australia	22	2,2	3,7	0,7	0,2	24%
Total	875	87,5	148,8	29,8	4,7	16%

(1) 10% of the population should wear hearing aids.
(2) 70% should wear two hearing aids.
(3) Re-buy occurs every 5 years.
(4) Year 2000 Amplifon Estimate, Western countries.
(5) Penetration = present market/potential market.