GuideLiving here
Road, rail and aircraft noise
How many homes here sit in loud road, rail or aircraft noise, read from the government's official noise maps.
Use it
Example
If 3 of an area's 10 homes are mapped at 55 dB or more, the area shows 30% of homes at 55 dB+. A single home might read road 61.2 dB · rail under 40 dB (not mapped).
How we calculate it
- Defra's strategic noise maps (Round 4, 2022) model road, rail and airport noise across England.
- Levels are Lden: a 24-hour average in which evening and night noise counts extra.
- Each home is read at its OS Open UPRN point; the area shows the share of its homes at 55 dB or more (road, rail, aircraft or any of them) and at 65 dB or more.
The fine print
- Modelled annual averages at 4 m above ground on a 10 m grid, not measurements.
- Levels under 40 dB Lden are not mapped; aircraft noise is included where the load carries it (the current release does: road and rail 2022, airports 2021 operations).
- Each home is read at its OS Open UPRN point, which may sit at the building centre.
Road, rail and airports are separate Defra layers from the same round, each read at every home; the area counts a home once when any of them reaches the threshold. A home with no mapped level is under 40 dB Lden or outside the model, not silent.
Modelled: Strategic modelled road, rail and aircraft exposure (Lden): useful for comparing places, never a prediction of what a visit will sound like.
Measured: A live sound measurement at one place and time: it records what the microphone heard, including unmapped sources, and is not directly comparable with a modelled strategic band.
Defra strategic noise mapping Round 4 (2022), road, rail and airports. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.