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How loud is Peterborough?

In Peterborough, most noise-exposed residents face average day-evening-night (Lden) transport noise of 55–70 dB, mostly from road traffic, dropping to 50–65 dB at night. That ranks Peterborough #46 of 65 English urban areas in the government's strategic noise mapping, below the England median — quieter than most areas in the ranking.

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Noise map of Peterborough: modelled road-traffic noise (Lden) from the official strategic noise mapping, paler colours marking quieter levels and deepening through orange to dark purple along the loudest corridors, over the city's street network.
Peterborough's road-traffic noise, mapped: modelled Lden levels from the Defra Round 4 strategic noise maps (2022) — paler colours are quieter, deepening through orange to dark purple along the loudest corridors. Note: the map shows the newer Round 4 (2022) noise levels, while the exposure statistics in the table below are from Round 3 (2017), the latest England tables published. Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO.
Peterborough at a glance (official strategic noise mapping)
England rank (of 65) #46
Daytime Lden range 55–70 dB
Night Lnight range 50–65 dB
vs. WHO guideline ≈ 10 dB above the 53 dB Lden road-noise guideline (night guideline: 45 dB)
Dominant source road traffic
Mapped area Peterborough (England)
Population 153,000
Data round Round 3 (2017)

Peterborough's noise picture comes from the UK's official strategic noise mapping — the same exercise every large urban area must run under the environmental noise regulations.

Across the 153,000 residents of the mapped area, the bulk of those exposed to transport noise sit in the 55–70 dB Lden band by day-evening-night average and 50–65 dB Lnight at night, with road traffic the dominant source. The midpoint of that daytime range is roughly 10 dB above the WHO's 53 dB Lden road-noise guideline (the night guideline is 45 dB Lnight).

These statistics come from the Round 3 strategic noise mapping (2017, the latest England exposure statistics published). Defra's Round 4 maps (2022) exist as noise-level grids, but the matching population-exposure tables are due to be published with the next Noise Action Plans — this page will be updated to Round 4 when they land.

Environmental noise in Peterborough, by the numbers

  • England rank: #46 of 65 mapped urban areas (loudest = #1)
  • Daytime (Lden) exposure band: 55–70 dB for the bulk of exposed residents
  • Night (Lnight) exposure band: 50–65 dB
  • Dominant noise source: road traffic
  • Mapped-area population: 153,000
  • Data: Round 3 (2017), England strategic noise mapping

These are the official published exposure statistics from the UK's strategic noise mapping — see the methodology on the UK city ranking. Lden is the annual-average day-evening-night level; only residents above the 55 dB Lden threshold are reported.

License: Peterborough's derived figures and noise map are published under CC BY 4.0 — reuse or republish with attribution to decibelshield.app. Contains public sector information from Defra, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and DAERA, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. Download the full dataset (CSV · JSON) or the Peterborough map image.

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