The bar charts compare the level of human exposure to four distinct categories of noise during the day and night in a specific location in 2007. Overall, urban area residents were affected profoundly compared to people who lived in the countryside, especially during the day. Of particular note is that the noise which was generated by traffic congestion was by far the dominant source of noise in both types of places. While the noise derived from industry merely influenced people, the number of people affected by the noise of trains and aircraft was similar in both rural areas and metropolitan cities.
In cities, the number of individuals who were disturbed by noise by day displayed much higher rates than people by night. The figure for traffic started at 65 million in the day and, by night, fell to just under 50 million, exhibiting the highest point in the chart. However, the reverse was true for the remaining types of noise; trains and aircraft followed a similar pattern, both of which recorded 12 million and 6 million during the day with 10 million and 2 million at night respectively. A strikingly contrasting pattern was observed in industry, whose noise did not really impact people, standing at 2 million in the day and 0.5 million at night.
Regarding the number of people in rural areas, the noise from traffic jams affected many citizens, hitting a peak of about 37 million and 27 million respectively. By contrast, the noise driven by trains had less influence on people during both day and night, at 8 million and 5 million, twice as high as that of aircraft, at 4 million and 2.5 million. However, industry did not produce noise emissions.v