Estimated number of people per 100,000 inhabitants highly annoyed and highly sleep disturbed by noise from road, rail and aircraft traffic in the EEA countries in 2022, EEA-32 member countries (excluding Türkiye and Liechtenstein)

The figure shows the number of people highly annoyed and highly sleep disturbed per 100,000 inhabitants by noise for road, rail and air traffic based on strategic noise maps 2022. High annoyance and high sleep disturbance are calculated based on the exposure-response functions outlined in the WHO environmental noise guidelines for the European region and WHO source-specifc recommended noise levels.

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Units

Number of people suffering high annoyance and high sleep disturbance due to noise from road, rail and aircraft traffic per 100,000 inhabitants starting at WHO recommended levels: 53 dB during the day-evening-night period and 45 dB during the night for Road, 54 dB during the day-evening-night period and 44 dB during the night for rail and 45 dB during the day-evening-night period and 40 dB during the night for aircraft.

Additional information

It covers population exposed to noise sources such as roads with more than 3 million vehicle passages a year, railways with more than 30,000 train passages per year and airports with more than 50,000 aircraft movements per year, as well as all roads, railways, airports in urban areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Methodology

-Estimated number of people exposed to long-term harmful levels of road, rail and aircraft noise. (Left) Based on Environmental Noise Directive Thresholds in EU-27 for 2012, 2017, and 2022; (Right) Based on END and WHO Thresholds in EU-27 for 2022.
-The estimated number of people is calculated using data reported under the terms of the END as well as a gap filled data in cities/countries where data was missing.
-The methodology for gap filling 2022 is described here: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-he/products/etc-he-products/etc-he-reports/etc-he-report-2023-9-wp-3-2-5-3-development-of-a-2017-baseline-to-monitor-noise-under-the-zero-pollution-objectives.
- Detailed completeness of the data by country and year can be seen in: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/c952f520-8d71-42c9-b74c-b7eb002f939bn
-The methodology for calculatig number of people exposed below the END thresholds is described in: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-he/products/etc-he-products/etc-he-reports/etc-he-report-2023-11-environmental-noise-health-risk-assessment-methodology-for-assessing-health-risks-using-data-reported-under-the-environmental-noise-directive.
- There may be double counting if the number of people affected by noise of the three sources is added up.

Estimated number of people per 100,000 inhabitants highly annoyed and highly sleep disturbed by noise from road, rail and aircraft traffic in the EEA countries in 2022, EEA-32 member countries (excluding Türkiye and Liechtenstein)

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References and footnotes