New Jersey takes the noise crown.
A recent study found that New Jersey is the loudest state in the lower 48.
Using metrics including residents and bars per square mile, road and air traffic, construction activity, noise complaint searches, public transit density, and dog ownership, the study weighted 0-to-100 scales for each category to determine overall noise rankings.
The Garden State scored a deafeningly high 75.27 for overall noise, drowning out Massachusetts (57.03) and Rhode Island (55.39), which ranked second and third place, respectively.
The top five were rounded out by Maryland and Delaware.
To the surprise of many, New York came in eighth place with a score of 26.03, just behind Connecticut and Florida.
Manhattan Mental Health Counseling conducted the study, which excluded Alaska and Hawaii.
A constellation of factors pushed Jersey to the top spot. With 1,298 residents per square mile, the state has the highest population density. New Jersey also has the highest daily commuter traffic, with 29,603 vehicle miles traveled per square mile each day.
According to Natalie Buchwald, founder of Manhattan Mental Health Counseling, New Jersey’s high population and packed roads “make everyday noise hard for people to avoid.”
She added that a bulk of the daily racket comes from commuting.
“Sitting in traffic with horns and engines around you, or squeezing onto packed trains, puts you on alert before you’ve even started your day. That tension tends to follow you into work and back home again,” said Buchwald in a statement.
And that tonal tension could prove deadly.
Transportation noise has long posed a severe public health hazard: in 1981, the EPA warned that half the US population lived with harmful levels of road, rail, or aircraft noise. Today, EU researchers rank traffic noise as the second-greatest environmental threat after air pollution, responsible for a staggering one million years of healthy life lost each year, according to the WHO.
A 2023 study found that long-term noise exposure is associated with cardiovascular disease and puts recipients of constant racket at a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
At the other end of the sound spectrum, Wyoming is the quietest state, with a score of 6.67, followed by West Virginia, North Dakota, and Mississippi.
Denizens of the Garden State have long griped about the subpar sound quality.
Earlier this year, eerie humming sounds from the construction site of a massive AI data center in Vineland, New Jersey reportedly drove residents out of their minds.
Meanwhile, in Hoboken, despite over a decade of community lobbying, a noise-abatement flight path into Teterboro Airport introduced in 2021 remains virtually ignored, serving only 80 of roughly 40,000 eligible planes last year.
The Hackensack City Council is now urging the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to intervene and direct more traffic along the designated Route 17 corridor, away from densely populated residential areas.
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