The Noises of New York City

New York City is known to be a noisy place, but do you know where or what causes the most noise in NYC? We have broken down which neighborhoods have had the most 311 calls and why people were calling to complain.

Based on data that was compiled as of fall 2014, the neighborhoods with the most noise complaints included East Village, Battery Park City/Lower Manhattan, Soho/Tribeca/City Center/Little Italy and Midtown/Midtown South. Midtown/Midtown South had the most complaints with 104.51 complaints per 1,000 people. In comparison, areas further from midtown Manhattan like Starrett City and Co-op City had 2.25 and 1.10 complaints per 1000 people, respectively.

Taking a broader view, we discovered that the majority of noise complaints (37%) came from loud music/party. Construction before/after hours (16%) and loud talking (13%) followed to round out the top three sources of noise. Sounds that were much smaller sources of the noise problem included a car/truck noise and banging or pounding that each contributed 2%. Overall, these noise complaints peaked at 11pm and midnight and over the weekend.

Final calculations revealed there were 140,664 noise complaints in NYC over the past year. Although we may not be able to prevent these noises from disturbing us throughout the day, we can take satisfaction in the fact that a significant percentage of New Yorkers are complaining along with us!

Noise Culprits- Top 3 Reasons People Complain

1. Loud Music/Party

2.  Construction Before/After Hours

3. Loud Talking