More noise complaints during Covid crisis

The police received more noise complaints in the past twelve months than a year earlier, when the number of complaints was also high, presumably due to the coronavirus crisis. This is apparent from an analysis by ANP/LocalFocus of public police figures. Between March 2021 and February 2022, the police registered about 198,000 noise complaints.

In March 2020, the Netherlands went into lockdown for the first time. Since then, there have been more complaints about noise nuisance. In the twelve months before the first lockdown, the police registered 120,000 complaints. In the first year of the pandemic, that rose to 187,000. In the second year, that number was again higher and over 60 percent higher than in the year before the coronavirus.

People most often complained about noise pollution in the summer months of June, July, and August. June last year was a record month for noise complaints at 22,600 reports.

The number of noise nuisance reports has increased in all provinces since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Groningen, Noord-Holland, and Utrecht recorded the largest increase compared to two years ago. Compared to before the pandemic, noise complaints increased in almost every municipality. In nearly 15 percent of the municipalities, reports more than doubled.