A new report from the European Environment Agency has found over 20% of Europeans — more than one in five — are exposed to harmful transport noise levels. When measured against stricter World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, this figure rises to over 30%, or nearly one in three citizens.

Road traffic is the most widespread source of transport noise, exposing an estimated 92 million people to levels above the END threshold of 55 dB for the day-evening-night period, compared to 18 million affected by rail traffic and 2.6 million by aircraft noise.

When compared to other environmental health threats, transport noise ranks among the top three — just behind air pollution and temperature-related factors.

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/environmental-noise-in-europe-2025