These are the countries with the worst noise pollution
18 Jun '2018 LifeWhen you think of pollution, you might imagine smog-filled cities and oceans full of plastic. But pollution is way more than that. Noise pollution is definitely a thing and something that’s affecting our hearing more and more.
You won’t be surprised to hear that you’ll find the worst noise pollution in big cities. Recent studies show that the loudest city is Guangzhou in China. According to The World Hearing Index, Zurich in Switzerland is the most serene (when it comes to noise).
Asia vs. Europe
The Worldwide Hearing Index was created some time ago by digital hearing app founders Mimi Hearing Technologies GmbH. They analyzed the hearing test results of 200,000 of their users.
They combined their results with data on noise pollution from the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as from SINTEF, a Norwegian-based research organization, and used it to plot noise pollution in 50 different cities.
The top 5 cities with the worst noise pollution contain Delhi, Cairo and Mumbai followed by Istanbul. If you want to enjoy silence, you probably should stay in a European city. Zurich, Vienna, Oslo, Munich, and Stockholm suffer the least pollution.
The best and worst countries
This year Mimi came with another hearing index. This index could best be described as a hearing map of the world. In the image underneath you can find how good or bad countries score on average. Logically, green scores are (very) good and red scores are (very) bad. The scores indicated in gray can be classified as normal.
As you may know, Knops is situated in Amsterdam. The Netherlands score quite average with 1.06 dB above the average decibels. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden (1.31 dB below average decibel levels) and Finland (1.03 dB below average decibel levels) score relatively good. Can’t stand sound? Don’t move to countries in Asia, like India (12.85 above average decibel levels) and Taiwan (5.25 above average decibel levels)! Have a look for yourself:
Since exploring the world is one of the best things in life, we advise you just to bring your Knops with you everywhere you go. This way you can enjoy all those cool cultures and put the world on mute whenever you feel like to. This especially seems like a must when you are going to Asia. Some zen-like peace whenever you want it, boom!
