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If you're in New York City right now, close your eyes and pay attention to what you hear: more likely than not, at any given moment, the sounds of the city feature some distant honking, perhaps some police sirens and a New Yorker screeching at the top of his her lungs for no apparent reason. One thing we can all agree on when it comes to New York is that you don't come here to find peace and quiet.
Believe it or not, though, the Big Apple is actually the second noisiest city in the world, and not the first, at least according to a new survey by the language-learning app Preply.
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The survey analyzed several cities around the world and measured key factors like traffic, noise pollution levels and population density. According to those metrics, New York's pollution level is 68.91, in part thanks to the 13 million visitors that come by each year, heavy car traffic and the loudness of the landmarks that call NYC home.
The (dis)honor of landing in first place went to Paris, which has a much higher population density per square kilometer than New York (21,000 versus 10,000), sees nearly double the amount of visitors as us yearly and has the highest number of attractions that were described as noisy or loud.
Hong Kong rounds out the top three while Frankfurt, in Germany, is apparently the quietest city in the world.
There's plenty of reasons we should care about how loud a city is: for one, noise pollution can lead to stress-related adverse health effects, including high blood pressure, hearing loss and sleep disruption, according to the EPA.
Believe it or not, there are some initiatives out there intent on making our streets quieter. Last year, a bill was passed intent on installing "quiet cameras" that could flag vehicles that make noise above 85 decibels and force drivers to pay a fine for surpassing the limit.
10 loudest cities in the world:
1. Paris
2. New York City
3. Hong Kong
4. London
5. Los Angeles
6. Barcelona
7. São Paulo
8. Tokyo
9. Singapore
10. Seoul