25+ Revealing Noise Pollution Statistics: Environment & Oceans (2022)

Noise pollution is a part of our everyday life, whether we like it or not.

Around 5% of the global population suffers from noise-induced hearing loss due to environmental noise pollution, with 40% of Americans living in dangerously loud areas.

Learn how many people are affected by noise pollution and its effect on human health and marine life.

People affected by noise pollution worldwide

Americans affected by noise pollution

The country with the highest noise pollution

Most common sources of noise pollution

Most common effects of noise pollution

Noise Pollution Statistics (Top picks)

• 30 million Americans are exposed to noise pollution above healthy levels.
• Long-term exposure to noise can lead to health and mental problems.
• Yearly, 12,000 Europeans die prematurely due to noise pollution.
• USA and Italy are the loudest countries in the world.
• Traffic is the most common source of noise pollution.

How many people are affected by noise pollution worldwide?

Noise pollution contributes to hearing loss; as of 2021, 432 million adults worldwide suffer from it.

Among the number, 34 million represent children.

It’s expected that by 2050, 2.5 billion people will experience hearing loss to some degree of noise pollution.

On average, 1/3 of the population claim that the world has become noisier in recent years.

41% of Italians and 29% of Dutchmen think the noise pollution has worsened.

51% of people living in the city, and even 9% of people living outside cities, complain about the noise.

How many people are affected by noise pollution in the EU?

20% or 100 million people in the EU are exposed to environmental noise such as:

• Road traffic noise pollution
• Railways
• Airports

Sources: WHO, Amplifon, EEA

You can find all the source links bottom.

How many Americans are affected by noise pollution?

Around 30 million Americans live where noise pollution exceeds the healthy limit.

The number has increased by 10 million in the last few years.

30 million Americans are exposed to dangerous noise levels in their workplace.

New York is one of the loudest cities in the United States.

The loudest measured sound at 95dB and the quietest at 56dB.

From January 2021 to May 2021, people filed noise complaints 242,141 times, which is 21.5% more complaints than the year before.

Out of 183,640 complaints in New York between January 2022 and May 2022, loud music/party was the most common at 51%.

Sources: Healthy Hearing, NIH, UNEP, RentHop, Thrillist

How noise pollution affects health?

Excessive noise exposure can lead to:

Noise annoyance, insomnia, stress, metabolic and cardiovascular problems, and adverse effects on children’s cognitive functions.

The study of the Tarkwa mining community in Ghana separated the community members into 7 groups in order to research the effects of noise pollution.

Group 1 (size: 220 members)

Group 2 (size: 320 members)

Group 3 (size: 250 members)

Group 4 (size: 212 members)

Here are the effects of noise pollution on members of different genders and age groups.

More than 12,000 people in the EU die prematurely from long-term environmental noise exposure.

Noise pollution is responsible for 48,000 new cases of ischaemic heart disease per year in the EU.

It’s estimated that around 72,000 hospital admissions are due to noise pollution.

An estimated 22 million people in the EU suffer from chronic high annoyance.

Around 6.5 million have chronic high sleep disturbance.

Noise pollution can affect wildlife.

Many animals use sound to survive, from finding food, navigating, finding mates, and staying away from predators.

Sources: EEA, Science Direct, Iberdrola, National Geographic

What country has the highest noise pollution?

USA and UK are among the noisiest countries in the world.

On average, these 2 countries have the highest levels of noise pollution based on available data.

Sources: Amplifon, EEA 3

Noise pollution by country rankings

Top 10 countries in Europe based on the number of people exposed to excessive noise pollution.

India is the noisiest country in the world, based on a subjective web survey.

Followed by the USA, China, and Italy.

Sources: EEA 3, I2A2

If we want more objective, measured data, look at the results below:

Top 10 noisiest cities in the world

Dhaka is by far the noisiest city in the world, with the maximum measured sound at 119dB.

What are the most common sources of noise pollution?

Most common sources of environmental noise and how loud they are:

Road traffic is the biggest noise polluter in the EU.

An estimated 100 million people live in areas where traffic noise exceeds 55dB. Around 32 million are exposed to levels above 65dB.

1. The second biggest source is railways, with 19 million people exposed to noises louder than 55dB.
2. The third biggest source is airports, with 4.1 million people affected.
3. The fourth-biggest source is industrial noise, affecting around 1 million people.

Sources: Iberdrola, Nonoise, Your Article Library, Washington University, EEA 2

What are the most common effects of noise pollution?

The most common problem caused by noise pollution is hearing loss.

Other areas where noise pollution affects human health are:

• Physical – respiratory problems, high blood pressure and pulse, headaches, gastritis, and heart attacks.
• Psychological – stress, depression, anxiety, hysteria, fatigue (also applicable to animals)
• Sleep – noises louder than 45dB prevent you from sleeping normally (maximum recommended loudness is 30dB)
• Behavior – aggressiveness and agitation
• Cognitive functions – memory issues, troubles with concentration

Sources: National Geographic, Iberdrola

What are noise pollution effects on children and their development?

Children living in noisy areas suffer from stress and cognitive dysfunctions.

Children are especially susceptible to noise-related problems. Those living near an airport or busy streets are known to suffer stress and impaired memory, attention, and reading skills.

Some even have higher resting blood pressure and stress levels due to long-term noise exposure.

Noise pollution can affect unborn babies.

Loud environmental noises can affect the development of fetuses, newborns, and little children.

Sources: National Geographic, EHCC, Indian Pediatrics

What is an acceptable level of noise? / What are WHO-recommended noise levels?

World Health Organization recommends different loudness exposures depending on source and time of day.

Here’s a table of acceptable levels of noise for day and night:

What are the different levels of noise pollution?

Here’s a table of different levels of noise pollution:

What percentage of population has hearing loss?

Over 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from hearing loss, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

It’s estimated that the number will rise to 2.5 billion by 2050.

Read more about the hearing loss, tinnitus and deafness statistics.

Around 12.5% (or 5.2 million) of US children and teenagers aged 6-19 suffer permanent hearing damage from loud noise exposure.

Furthermore, 17% (or 26 million) of US adults are experiencing the same problems.

Ocean noise pollution statistics / What are ocean noise pollution levels?

Killer whales feed 18-25% less time when hunting near boats compared to quiet areas.

Through ship engines and sonar-induced noise, humans disturb marine life.

Dolphins and whales need echolocation to function normally, which is disturbed by ships and sonars. Military sonars can reach up to 230dB at their source.

Fishers catch 40-80% fewer fish near areas where humans conduct seismic surveys.

The loudest sounds undersea:

Here’s a table of different underwater sound sources and their loudness:

Sources: WHO 2, NIH, Nature, National Geographic, AWI, Nature

Conclusion

Noise pollution is everywhere, so it’s important to know how it affects our daily lives.

Do you think the world is getting noisier? How does noise affect your life?

Hopefully, you learned something new, and if you’ve heard any other fascinating stat we could add, please let us know in the comments.

Sources: WHO, WHO 2, Amplifon, EEA, EEA 2, EEA 3, Science Direct, Iberdrola, National Geographic, UNEP, Washington University, Nonoise, Your Article Library, EHCC, Indian Pediatrics, CDC, Harvard Health, I2A2, NIH, NIH 2, Healthy Hearing, Nature, AWI, RentHop