In 2019, 1 in 4 (28.3%) of Maltese people had a problem with noise within their neighbourhood, ranking first in Europe, according to a study published by Eurostat on Friday.

The study which analysed noise from neighbours or from the street, ranked Malta much higher when compared to the lowest proportions which were recorded in Croatia, Estonia and Ireland (all 8.2%).

Across the EU Member states, 17.3% reported that they suffered from noise coming from neighbours or from the street. This proportion is more than twice as high for people living in cities (24.1%) than for those in rural areas (10.4%).

The Netherlands and Germany ranked second and third place with 26.6% and 26.1%, respectively.

Next in the rankings were those living in Portugal (22.7%), Luxembourg (20.2%) and Denmark (20.1%). Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia followed with 8.9%, 9.7% and 10.5%, respectively.

The study highlighted that the proportion of people that reported having experienced problems with neighbourhood noise tended to decrease as the number of persons in the household increased.

Almost 20.8% of single persons claimed to have been disturbed by this type of noise, noise affected 17.8% of two-adult households and only 15.5% of those households made up of three or more adults, statistics show.

In addition, more households without dependent children (18.2%) reported being affected than those with dependent children (16.4%).

Single persons aged below 65 were affected more by noise (25.2%), in comparison to those above 65 years old (14.9%).

Malta does not yet have a law on noise pollution. Construction noise is regulated by fragmented laws, leading to poor enforcement.