Noise Levels in Penns Beach, Pennsville, NJ | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
48 dBA
Average noise across Penns Beach
Quiet office
65
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
12% of Penns Beach residents
62 dBA
Loudest residential point
Busy restaurant
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Penns Beach at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
What the numbers sound like
- 30 dBAWhisper
- 40 dBASoft rainfall
- 45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
- 50 dBAQuiet office
- 55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
- 60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
- 65 dBABusy restaurant
- 70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
- 80 dBACity bus interior
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 65 Penns Beach residents, or 12.4%, live above that level. By land area, 9.6% of Penns Beach is above 55 dBA.
90.4% below 55 dBA
9.6% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Penns Beach compares to similar-sized neighborhoods.
Noise by Part of Penns Beach
Average noise levels for Penns Beach residents, grouped by direction from the center of Penns Beach. The highest population-weighted average is in central Penns Beach; the lowest is in southwestern Penns Beach, where just 2% of residents live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a third of the share in the loudest section.
Central Penns Beach
46.8 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
Eastern Penns Beach
46.8 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
Northeastern Penns Beach
46.8 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
Southern Penns Beach
44.9 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Southwestern Penns Beach
44.4 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
To the human ear, noise in central Penns Beach sounds about 18% louder than in southwestern Penns Beach, a 2.4 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.
How far back from do you need to be?
produces an estimated 62 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
62 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
49 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 37% of Penns Beach sits under tree canopy (much heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 24% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Philadelphia International (PHL) sits northeast of Penns Beach. 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 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Penns Beach, particularly to the southwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Penns Beach
The bar chart below shows the share of Penns Beach residents in each noise band. About 83% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Penns Beach Compares
Penns Beach sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Penns Beach's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with brookside-mullica-hill-nj, snowy-owl-woods-sewell-nj, mullica-station-mullica-hill-nj, and golf-view-carneys-point-nj.
Average noise level (dBA)
Penns Beach's 48.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. New Jersey as a whole averages 49.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Penns Beach because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 12.4% of Penns Beach residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 9.6% of Penns Beach's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New Jersey average of 25.2% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Penns Beach
- 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 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 37% of Penns Beach is under tree cover (much heavier than most neighborhoods), 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. Philadelphia International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the northeast. Neighborhoods to the southwest of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
