Not London or Tokyo: two U.S. cities among top three noisiest in the world, new study reveals

If you, like me, live in a bustling city, you’ll know that noise is part of the urban package. The horns, the chatter, the music leaking from street buskers or late-night bars. Some of it’s atmospheric. Some of it’s the reason you’re searching Amazon for earplugs at 2 a.m. But how do the various urban sprawls around the world compare?

Well, a new ranking of the world’s 30 loudest cities shows that while places like London and Tokyo get plenty of attention, it’s New York and Los Angeles that lead the U.S. charge in the global noise league, both on the podium and one leading the way.

Which city is officially the loudest?

The study scored cities on traffic congestion, noise pollution levels, population density, nightlife, and tourist numbers. New York took the top spot worldwide, with a near-perfect score of 134 out of 150.The constant wail of sirens, screech of subway brakes and an unblinking nightlife make its soundscape relentless, even though its population density is lower than some European capitals.

Los Angeles, often associated with wide boulevards and palm-lined calm, landed in third place with a score of 108. It’s not crowds that drive the decibels here but the car culture – miles of gridlocked freeways, engines revving, and the thrum of helicopters. As I see it, you could live ten miles from downtown and still feel like you’re parked next to an idling bus.

As you can see from the table above, Barcelona sits between the two Americans, powered less by traffic and more by sheer human activity. Its compact old town and beach districts funnel the sound of festivals, street music and late-night conversation straight to residents’ windows.

If there’s a takeaway, it’s that size and density aren’t everything when it comes to urban noise – infrastructure, nightlife, and cultural habits can make even a spread-out city roar.

Maybe the healthy image provided by the moniker ‘The Big Apple’ should be changed to ‘The Noisy Donut‘. OK, maybe not.

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