Noise Levels in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
63 dBA
Average noise across South Philadelphia
Busy restaurant
13,178
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
100% of South Philadelphia residents
79 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across South Philadelphia 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.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
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 13,178 South Philadelphia residents, or 99.5%, live above that level. By land area, 99.0% of South Philadelphia is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for South Philadelphia residents, grouped by direction from the center of South Philadelphia. Western South Philadelphia carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern South Philadelphia carries the lowest. Just 100% of residents in Eastern South Philadelphia live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, roughly the same as the share in Western South Philadelphia.
Central South Philadelphia
63.0 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
99% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern South Philadelphia
59.8 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern South Philadelphia
61.8 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern South Philadelphia
62.3 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western South Philadelphia
63.9 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western South Philadelphia sounds about 33% louder than Eastern South Philadelphia to the human ear, a 4.1 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 Oregon Av do you need to be?
Oregon Av produces an estimated 63 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
63 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
48 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
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 0% of South Philadelphia sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 82% 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 southwest of South Philadelphia. 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 South Philadelphia, particularly to the northeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across South Philadelphia
The bar chart below shows the share of South Philadelphia residents in each noise band. About 0% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 82% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How South Philadelphia Compares
South Philadelphia sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how South Philadelphia's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Point Breeze-Philadelphia, City Center East, Pennsport-Whitman-Queen, and Wharton-Hawthorne-Bella Vista.
Average noise level (dBA)
South Philadelphia's 62.6 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Pennsylvania as a whole averages 52.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than South Philadelphia because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 99.5% of South Philadelphia 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, 99.0% of South Philadelphia's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Pennsylvania average of 33.5% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to South Philadelphia
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 Oregon Av 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 0% of South Philadelphia is under tree cover (much lighter than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is high-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 southwest. Neighborhoods to the northeast of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
