Cyprus Mail 3 January 2020 - article by Annette Chrysostomou
Cypriots reported they suffered from more noisy neighbours or streets outside their home in 2018 then most EU member states, Eurostat has reported.
Across the EU, over a quarter of the population reported experiencing problems with noise from their neighbours or the street, with the highest amount in Malta (28.2 per cent), Germany (27.8 per cent) and the Netherlands (27.1 per cent). Next in the rankings were those living in Portugal (23 per cent), Romania (20.1 per cent), the United Kingdom (19.8 per cent), Cyprus (19.6 per cent), Greece and Luxembourg (both 19.3 per cent).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportion was recorded in Croatia (8 per cent), ahead of Hungary (8.5 per cent) and Estonia (8.6 per cent).
18.3 per cent of the population of the European Union reported that they suffered from noise coming from their neighbours or the street.
Unsurprisingly, the proportion is more than twice as high for people living in cities (24.1 per cent) than for those in rural areas (11 per cent).
The proportion of people that reported having experienced problems with neighbourhood noise tended to decrease in line with an increase in the number of persons in the household. While almost 21.8 per cent of single persons claimed to have been disturbed by this type of noise, noise affected 18.7 per cent of two-adult households and only 16.2 per cent of those households made up of three or more adults.
Similarly, more households without dependent children (19 per cent) reported being affected than those with dependent children (17.2 per cent).
The proportion of people protesting against noise is higher for single people aged below 65 (26.6 per cent) than for those above 65 years old (15.7 per cent).
