Annual mean sound pollution exposure in cities — population-weighted day-evening-night noise level (Lden)

Environmental noise is a major—but often overlooked—public health risk. This statistic reports each country’s population-weighted annual mean day-evening-night sound level (Lden, in decibels) for people living in urban areas, capturing chronic exposure from road traffic, rail, aircraft, and other urban sources. Because it is population-weighted, it reflects what the typical urban resident experiences rather than what is measured at a single monitoring site.

The metric is designed for cross-country comparability: higher Lden values indicate louder average sound environments over a full year, with evening and night noise penalized to reflect greater sensitivity and sleep disruption. These estimates can be used to highlight where urban planning, transport policy, and building standards could yield large health and quality-of-life benefits.