You’re Not Imagining It – Maltese Neighbours Are Officially The Noisiest In Europe
Malta is often painted as a picturesque, tranquil island by the sea, with fishermen in colourful lżuż sailing along the coast as the sun idly shines down onto the island’s inhabitants.
Apparently though, the reality is very different. A Eurostat survey looking into the level of noise coming from ‘the neighbours or the street’ has found that over one in four Maltese people said they suffer from neighbourhood noise in Malta.
Malta came in at the very top of the list, with 26.2% of Maltese respondents saying they experience problems with noise from their neighbours. Germany and Holland trailed Malta at 25.1% and 24.9% respectively.
A typical Maltese neighbour
The survey found that people living in cities were twice as likely to suffer from noisy neighbours than those in rural areas, perhaps further proof that Malta’s rural areas are gradually becoming urbanised.
It also found that the number of people reporting noise problems would decrease with the number of people in the household, meaning single people complained more about neighbourhood noise than households with multiple people, or children, in them.
It may come as no surprise that Maltese people feel like they have the noisiest neighbours in Europe.
It could stem from the lack of insulation between the tightly built houses, the noises from the festas – or even the local hamallu using your road for a drag race.