The bar chart gives information about how many people were disturbed by different sources of noise in Europe during the day and at night in urban and rural settings.
Overall, traffic was by far the biggest noise polluter both at daytime and nighttime in cities and rural places while the opposite can be said for industry. It is also worth noting that more city dwellers were affected by noise compared to those in the countryside.
Regarding noise pollution in urban areas, traffic was the dominant source, disturbing 64 million people during the day and 48 million at night. The next major contributor was railway noise, which affected a much smaller proportion of residents – 10 million in the daytime and 8 million after dark. The noise coming from planes distracted 4 million and 1 million city inhabitants during the day and at night respectively. Finally, 1 million people were affected by industrial noises during the day, which was three times higher than those disturbed at night.
The same pattern can be observed in rural settings albeit with much lower levels. Traffic caused the most disturbance in the countryside, affecting 34 million people during the day which was 10 million more than the nighttime figure. Noise from trains came next with 8 million in daylight hours and 6 million at night. Aircraft noise disrupted 2 million rural residents during the day and 1 million after the dark while industrial noise did not cause any trouble at all.