Almost one-fifth (18.3%) of the population of the European Union (EU) reported that they suffered from noise coming from their neighbours or the street in 2018.
Unsurprisingly, this proportion is more than twice as high for people living in cities (24.1%) than for those in rural areas (11.0%).
The proportion of people that reported having experienced problems with neighbourhood noise tended to decrease in line with the number of persons in the household. While almost 21.8% of single persons claimed to have been disturbed by this type of noise, noise affected 18.7% of two-adult households and only 16.2% of those households made up of three or more adults. Similarly, more households without dependent children (19.0%) reported being affected than those with dependent children (17.2%).
The proportion of people protesting against noise is higher for single persons aged below 65 (26.6%) than for those above 65 years old (15.7%).
1 in 4 suffers from neighbourhood noise in Malta, Germany and the Netherlands
Across the EU Member States in 2018, over a quarter of the population reported experiencing problems with noise from their neighbours or the street in Malta (28.2%), Germany (27.8%) and the Netherlands (27.1%). Next in the rankings were those living in Portugal (23.0%), Romania (20.1%), the United Kingdom (19.8%), Cyprus (19.6%), Greece and Luxembourg (both 19.3%).
The source dataset can be found here.
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportion was recorded in Croatia (8.0%), ahead of Hungary (8.5%), Estonia (8.6%), Ireland (9.4%) and Bulgaria (9.4%).
To contact us, please visit our User Support page.
For press queries, please contact our Media Support.