Decibel Shield
Anaheim noise map: where the city is loudest
Anaheim has the highest severe-noise share in the country: 4.2% of residents live above 70 dB, and 10.7% above 60 dB, ranking fourth overall. Three freeways — I-5, SR-91 and SR-57 — form a lattice through a city of dense, freeway-adjacent apartment housing.
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| US rank (of 100 largest cities) | #4 |
|---|---|
| Residents above 60 dB | 10.7% |
| Residents above 70 dB | 4.2% |
| Residents in the 45–60 dB band | 31.5% |
| Population (ACS 2016–2020) | 333,887 |
| Census tracts mapped | 59 |
Anaheim’s distinction isn’t its overall ranking — it’s the severity. No large US city has a bigger share of residents above 70 dB, the level federal agencies treat as a serious threshold. The geometry explains it: I-5 cuts diagonally through the city’s heart, SR-91 runs the full east–west width, and SR-57 closes the triangle, with some of Orange County’s densest apartment stock built directly along the corridors.
The map has one famous omission. Disneyland’s nightly fireworks are a defining feature of Anaheim’s actual soundscape — audible across a swath of the city nearly every evening — but the federal model counts only road, rail and aviation, so they don’t register a single decibel here. Anaheim is a clean illustration of what transportation-noise data measures, and what it doesn’t.
Anaheim noise: the specifics
- Highest severe-exposure share of any large US city: 4.2% of residents above 70 dB.
- Three freeways (I-5, SR-91, SR-57) form a lattice through the city, with dense apartment housing along the corridors.
- Disneyland’s nightly fireworks — a real fixture of local noise — are invisible to the federal model, which counts only transportation sources.
- 10.7% of residents above 60 dB ranks #4 among the 100 largest US cities — see the full measured ranking.
How this map is made
This is a transparent aggregation of federal data, not an estimate: the BTS 2020 National Transportation Noise Map (road + rail + aviation) overlaid with Census ACS 2016–2020 population at tract level, clipped to the city boundary. Full methodology, limitations and the free CSV/JSON are on the US cities noise ranking. Remember what it doesn’t count: sirens, construction, nightlife and neighbors are outside the model.
How loud is your block?
The map shows averages by tract — your street is its own story. Measure it with the free online decibel meter → No install, nothing recorded.