Noise Levels in Kearns, UT | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map

Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold

The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 12,575 Kearns residents, or 40.0%, live above that level. By land area, 42.7% of Kearns is above 55 dBA.

See how noise in Kearns compares to similar-sized cities.

Noise by Part of Kearns

Average noise levels for Kearns residents, grouped by direction from the center of Kearns. Central Kearns carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Kearns carries the lowest. Just 38% of residents in Northern Kearns live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Central Kearns.

Central Kearns sounds about 27% louder than Northern Kearns to the human ear, a 3.5 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.

Loudest Road Corridors

The model evaluates every road in Kearns using federal traffic counts, posted speeds, heavy-truck ratios, and pavement type. The source level shown is the modeled noise at the road centerline, where it is loudest. Noise drops with distance, faster in vegetated areas and slower over open pavement.

Rail Noise

Active freight rail runs through parts of Kearns. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.

Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.

Airport Noise

Salt Lake City International (SLC) sits north of Kearns. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.

Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Kearns, particularly to the south, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.

How Noise Is Distributed Across Kearns

The bar chart below shows the share of Kearns residents in each noise band. About 58% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 8% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.

How Kearns Compares

Kearns sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Kearns's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Midvale, Magna, Cottonwood Heights, and South Salt Lake.

Average noise level (dBA)

Kearns's 54.4 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Utah as a whole averages 53.1 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Kearns because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.

Share of residents above 55 dBA

About 40.0% of Kearns residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 42.7% of Kearns's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Utah average of 25.8% and a national average of 28.1%.

What This Means if You're Moving to Kearns

• Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from 5600 W / Hwy 172 and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
• Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 6% of Kearns is under tree cover (much lighter than most cities), and the dominant land cover is low-intensity developed land. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
• Airport noise is directional. Salt Lake City International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the north. Neighborhoods to the south of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.

Sources & Methodology