The given bar charts illustrate how many people in Europe were affected by four different kinds of noise pollution, including traffic, trains, aircraft and industry, across both urban and rural regions during the daytime and nighttime in 2007.
Overall, regardless of the region, the number of people disturbed was consistently higher during the day than at night, and traffic was the largest source of noise pollution. Noticeably, noise pollution was more prevalent in cities than in rural areas.
Looking first at traffic and train noise, in cities, traffic noise affected the greatest number of individuals, disturbing nearly 64 million people during the day and about 48 million at night, which were roughly double the figures for their rural counterparts, at approximately 34 million and 24 million, respectively. Meanwhile, around 10 million and 8 million people were affected by train noise in urban regions during the daytime and nighttime. In rural areas, the figures were slightly lower, standing at about 8 million by day and 6 million at night.
By contrast, aircraft and industrial noise affected far fewer people overall. In cities, aircraft noise impacted 4 million residents during the day, compared with 2 million in rural areas. However, these numbers dropped sharply at night, both to just 1 million people. Additionally, industrial noise was the least source of disturbance, with only 1 million urban residents affected during the day and a mere 0.25 million at night, while no rural residents experienced industrial noise at any time of day.