The Manda real estate group measured the noise level inside 2,500 apartments for rent. Some neighborhoods, especially in the south of Paris, are noisier than others.
Road traffic, horns, restaurants and bars… The sources of noise pollution in Paris are many. The real estate group Manda has analysed* the noise in 2,500 Parisian apartments. And here are the results.
First of all, it is not a question of sleeping with the windows open. Acoustic comfort is logically much lower, with an intensity of 44.3 decibels. When closed, the indicator drops to 37.8 dB. This difference is explained, according to Manda, by the widespread use of double glazing, present in 95% of the apartments analyzed.
“Double glazing allows for a quieter acoustic environment, even in densely populated urban areas,” the studio assures.
Then, not all neighborhoods are the same when it comes to a minimum of silence, as our map below shows, created using Manda data:
The study reveals more noisy are the 15th, 1st and 8th, with a sound intensity close to 42dB. On the contrary, the quietest neighborhoods are the 7th, 9th and 17th, where the sound intensity is around 40 dB.
“This disparity is partly explained by traffic density and the presence of major arteries in the noisiest neighborhoods,” the authors write.
Arteries vs. adjacent streets
Noise is measured here inside apartments, but there are other methods. This is what the organization Bruitparif publishes a map more precise measurement of the noise level directly in the streets of Paris and more generally in the Île-de-France.
Within the neighborhoods, there are very significant disparities between the main arteries and the adjacent streets. Thus in the 7th arrondissement, one of the quietest according to Manda, the intensity of the sound exceeds 70 decibels, for example on the avenue de Ségur or the boulevard des Invalides.
Manda’s study finds that the quietest housing units are those overlooking a courtyard (36.9 dB with windows closed), followed by apartments located on a pedestrian street (37.6 dB) and finally homes overlooking a busy road with 38.7 dB). For future real estate projects, the group therefore calls for “taking these factors into account to optimize the quality of life of residents”.
*Study conducted on 2,500 homes distributed in the capital starting from the advertisements offered for rent by Manda and selected to form a representative sample.