Noisiest US cities: Where does Las Vegas rank?
Las Vegas is the seventh noisiest city in the U.S. according to a new study from Forbes Health.
The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metropolitan area ranked in the top 10 largely due to — you guessed it — a high number of casinos.
Forbes Health used U.S. Census Bureau statistics coupled with business data, economic development and population density to determine its rankings.
“We weighted each category based on how potentially damaging a type of establishment can be to hearing health based on its average decibel level, how accessible it is to the general public and whether hearing protection or other safety measures are generally required in those establishments,” the report said.
Forbes Health noted in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the metropolitan area ranked highly for factors such as the number of live sports events (9th), volume of bars and nightclubs (8th), concerts (3rd) and the number of casinos (1st), “which are all substantial contributors to the volume of noise in the area and can potentially cause damage to hearing health.”
The study also pointed out Las Vegas’ rankings in other factors, including number of restaurants (15th), quarries and mining sites (53rd), construction sites (97th), manufacturing establishments (91st), transportation and warehouses (68th), movie theatres (38th) and amusement parks and arcades (16th).
The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area in California came in first, largely due to a high density of restaurants around residential areas, as well as transportation and warehouses.
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.
