The bar graphs delineates the information about noise levels occuring during the daytime and at night in urban and rural location in Europe in 2007. From an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that traffic-induced noise was predominant in both rural and urban areas, distantly followed by train, aircraft, and finally industry, while the most suffering people from noise were in urban location. Notably, noise levels occuring diurnally were significantly higher than in the nighttime.
Regarding urban noise exposure caused by traffic during the daytime and at night, 64 million and 48 million people were affected, respectively. In comparison, in rural areas the impact of traffic noise was approximately half as high at 34 million and 24 million. In terms of noise stemming from trains, the disparity between diurnal and nocturnal was narrower compared to traffic noise, with 10 million people were affected during the day, which is 20% higher than at night (8 million), and 8 million and 6 million, in the same order. Similarly, 8 million and 6 million people were complaining about train noise during the day and at night, respectively.
Aircraft-attributable noise in both rural and urban location was identical, affecting 1 million in the nighttime, however diurnally in cities 4 million people were affected, which is twofold higher than in rural area at 2 million. Finally, noise attributed to industrial activity in cities followed 4:1 ration during the day and night impacting 1 million and 0.25 million, in that order. In contrast, industry-induced noise was non-existent in rural location.