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The loudest neighborhoods in America, by noise exposure

Archer Heights in Chicago, IL is the loudest mapped neighborhood in the country: 53.5% of its residents live with 60 dB or louder average-day transportation noise and 2.2% are above the 70 dB hearing-risk line. It leads a cross-city ranking of neighborhoods in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, drawn from the same federal tract-level data as the city rankings.

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City averages hide the loudest blocks. This ranks individual neighborhoods by the share of residents exposed to ≥60 dB average-day transportation noise, using the same measured BTS 2020 tract data behind the national city ranking. So far New York, Los Angeles, Chicago are mapped to the neighborhood level; you can also zoom to any block on the interactive noise map.

The 50 loudest neighborhoods in America

US neighborhoods ranked by share of residents exposed to ≥60 dB transportation noise (BTS 2020 × ACS 2016–2020)
# Neighborhood City ≥60 dB ≥70 dB Population
1 Archer Heights Chicago 53.5% 2.2% 13,661
2 Fuller Park Chicago 47.7% 14.4% 2,216
3 Clearing Chicago 47.3% 3.7% 24,410
4 Armour Square Chicago 46.4% 13.1% 13,375
5 Claremont Village-Claremont (East) New York 40.6% 8.3% 24,802
6 Chinatown Los Angeles 36.9% 15.7% 15,793
7 Garfield Ridge Chicago 33.5% 2.1% 35,979
8 Near West Side Chicago 30.7% 8% 62,787
9 Burnside Chicago 30.3% 9.4% 2,193
10 East Harlem (North) New York 29.7% 5.6% 54,955
11 Woodside New York 29.5% 6.7% 45,503
12 Near South Side Chicago 29% 4% 25,296
13 Loop Chicago 28.2% 3.1% 39,736
14 Rosedale New York 27.2% 1.8% 26,357
15 Rancho Park Los Angeles 26.4% 13.6% 5,557
16 Lower West Side Chicago 26.1% 4.2% 32,729
17 Springfield Gardens (South)-Brookville New York 25.9% 4.8% 22,024
18 O'Hare Chicago 25.6% 2.9% 15,702
19 East Harlem (South) New York 24.5% 3.7% 51,771
20 Elysian Valley Los Angeles 23.2% 12.7% 7,668
21 West Elsdon Chicago 22% 1.1% 18,325
22 Kew Gardens New York 21.6% 6.1% 22,254
23 Vermont Vista Los Angeles 21% 7.2% 27,051
24 Oakland Chicago 21% 7.8% 6,933
25 University Heights (South)-Morris Heights New York 20.8% 8.6% 53,744
26 Elysian Park Los Angeles 20.7% 9.1% 2,629
27 Rego Park New York 20.1% 4.7% 27,777
28 Downtown Los Angeles 20% 7.1% 60,117
29 Murray Hill-Kips Bay New York 18.3% 2.5% 50,985
30 Avalon Park Chicago 18.3% 5.5% 9,521
31 Queensboro Hill New York 18.1% 7.8% 20,266
32 Cypress Park Los Angeles 18% 5.5% 8,811
33 Echo Park Los Angeles 17.8% 8.2% 35,127
34 Broadway-Manchester Los Angeles 17.7% 7.2% 29,120
35 Near North Side Chicago 17.3% 1.7% 95,024
36 Harbor Gateway Los Angeles 17.1% 7.5% 41,905
37 Sunset Park (West) New York 17.1% 7.9% 50,387
38 Palms Los Angeles 16.9% 6.9% 41,426
39 Pullman Chicago 16.8% 1.9% 7,183
40 University Park Los Angeles 16.6% 5.5% 23,916
41 Lincoln Heights Los Angeles 16.3% 8.1% 30,131
42 Mission Hills Los Angeles 16.2% 8.4% 18,974
43 Castle Hill-Unionport New York 16.2% 7.3% 38,096
44 Roseland Chicago 15.6% 4.9% 39,765
45 Downtown Brooklyn-DUMBO-Boerum Hill New York 15.3% 4.2% 36,035
46 Sawtelle Los Angeles 15.1% 7% 41,893
47 Tremont New York 15.1% 6.1% 30,731
48 Boyle Heights Los Angeles 15% 6.6% 94,531
49 East Hollywood Los Angeles 15% 6.9% 65,560
50 East Elmhurst New York 14.9% 4% 24,218

By city

Each mapped city has a noise page for every one of its neighborhoods. Open a city to see them ranked against each other, with a tract map for each.

How this is measured

Every neighborhood aggregates the BTS 2020 National Transportation Noise Map (road, rail and aviation) over Census ACS 2016–2020 population for the census tracts inside its boundary — the same measured federal data as the city rankings, at finer grain, with no estimation by us. It counts transportation noise only, so construction, sirens, industry and nightlife are outside it. Neighborhood boundaries come from the cities' own open datasets.

How loud is your block?

Neighborhood averages still smooth over individual streets. Check yours with the free online decibel meter, or zoom to it on the interactive map.

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How to cite this page:

Decibel Shield. "Loudest US Neighborhoods by Transportation Noise." decibelshield.app, 2026, https://decibelshield.app/sound-map/us/neighborhoods/. Accessed [date].

License: CC BY 4.0 — Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Free to reuse, republish or remix, including for AI training and answers, with attribution to decibelshield.app.