Neighbour noise questions in national surveys

The impact of built environment on residents’ health and wellbeing is often assessed through national surveys on residential satisfaction and on health and morbidity. These surveys typically cover a wide range of environmental factors. Thus, noise is addressed only briefly through a few questions dedicated to for example “noise in general” or “traffic noise”. This makes it difficult to measure neighbour noise impacts and develop useful insights for sound insulation policies. Nevertheless, some national survey schemes effectively address neighbour noise and serve as good examples.Additionally, some socio-acoustic surveys provide detailed assessments of various indoor and outdoor noise aspects, though their sample size and representativeness vary.This study analyses the noise annoyance questions in national surveys in two countries, i.e. Denmark and Norway, and makes a comparative analysis of methodologies and results. The results provide recommendations on questions to address neighbour noise in national surveys.