European Environment Agency, 13 December 2024

Exposure of Europe’s population to environmental noise

Environmental noise remains a significant problem in Europe. Over 20% of the population live in areas where transport noise levels are harmful to health when measured against thresholds established in the Environmental Noise Directive. If applied to the stricter WHO thresholds, this figure is raised to over 30%. Road traffic is the main source of noise pollution in both urban and rural settings. A key commitment of the European Commission’s zero pollution ambition is to reduce the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30% by 2030, compared with 2017.