The bar chart illustrates how many European people in cities and the countryside were impacted by different kinds of noise in the daytime and nighttime in 2007.
Overall, noise levels were higher during the day, and city-dwellers were more affected compared to their rural counterparts. It is also reported that traffic was the largest source of noise pollution in both examined types of location.
Looking first at the two major noise sources, namely traffic and trains, the former affected 64 million city residents during the day and 48 million at night. The numbers being impacted by noise in rural areas were half as high, at 34 million in the daytime and 24 million at night.
The disparity between urban and rural demographics was far smaller in terms of train noise pollution. Specifically, 10 and 8 million people living in cities were reportedly disturbed by noise from trains in the daytime and at night respectively, and this was the case for 8 and 6 million rural inhabitants.
Turning to aircraft and industry, noise from flights was a problem for 4 million individuals in cities and 2 million in the countryside in the day. These numbers fell significantly by night, both to 1 million. Finally, industrial noise impacted more than 1 million city dwellers in a day, while not affecting anyone in the rural locations.