Few Hungarians complain about noisy neighbors

BBJ

Only about 8.5% of Hungarians reported that they suffered from noise coming from their neighbors or the street in 2018, the second-lowest rate across the entire European Union, according to the EUʼs statistical agency Eurostat.

Image: Eurostat

The EU average stood at 18.3%. The proportion was more than twice as high for people living in cities (24.1%) than for those in rural areas (11%).

The proportion of people complaining about neighborhood noise tended to decrease in line with the number of persons in the household. Almost 21.8% of single-person households claimed to have been disturbed by this type of noise, noise affected 18.7% of two-adult households and only 16.2% of households made up of three or more adults.

More households without dependent children (19%) reported being affected than those with dependent children (17.2%).

The proportion of people reporting noise-related problems was higher for single persons aged below 65 (26.6%) than for those above 65 years old (15.7%).

More than a quarter of the population reported experiencing problems with neighborhood noise in Malta (28.2%), Germany (27.8%) and the Netherlands (27.1%). A relatively high share of people complained in Portugal (23%), Romania (20.1%), the United Kingdom (19.8%), Cyprus (19.6%), Greece and Luxembourg (both 19.3%).

On the other hand, the rate stood at just 8% in Croatia, the only country with a lower share of complaints than Hungary. A low proportion was recorded in Estonia (8.6%), Ireland and Bulgaria (both 9.4%) as well.