Decibel chart: common sounds and their noise levels

Everyday sounds range from about 30 dB for a soft whisper to 140 dB or more for fireworks and a jet taking off. Anything at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to harm your hearing; from 85 dBA, long or repeated exposure can cause permanent hearing loss.

The chart uses figures published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Where a source gives a range, the range is shown.

Decibel chart of common sounds

Level	Sound	Source	What it means for hearing
10 dB	Normal breathing	WHO	Safe without limit
30 dB	Soft whisper	WHO	Safe without limit
40 dB	Library	WHO	Safe without limit
60 dB	Normal conversation	WHO	Safe without limit
60–70 dBA	Normal conversation	NIDCD	Unlikely to harm hearing, even for long periods
74–104 dBA	Movie theatre	NIDCD	Upper end is risky over time
80 dB	Doorbell	WHO	Safe for 40 hours a week
80–110 dBA	Motorcycles and dirt bikes	NIDCD	Risky with long or repeated exposure
85 dB	Heavy traffic, heard inside a car	WHO	Safe for 12.5 hours a week
90 dB	Shouted conversation	WHO	Safe for 4 hours a week
94–110 dBA	Headphones at full volume, sporting events, concerts	NIDCD	Minutes to an hour a day at most
105 dB	Car horn at 5 metres	WHO	Safe for 8 minutes a week
110–129 dBA	Sirens	NIDCD	Can damage hearing quickly
130 dB	Jackhammer	WHO	Under a second a week
140 dB	Aeroplane taking off	WHO	No safe exposure
140–160 dBA	Fireworks show	NIDCD	No safe exposure

The weekly times are the WHO safe listening allowances. For daily limits by level (85 dBA for 8 hours down to 100 dBA for 15 minutes), see safe noise levels.

How to read a decibel chart

Decibels are logarithmic, so the numbers do not add up the way they look. A sound 10 dB louder carries ten times the sound energy; 3 dB louder carries twice the energy. Going from 85 to 95 dB is not a small step: it cuts the WHO weekly allowance from 12.5 hours to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Charts in dBA use A-weighting, which counts frequencies the way the human ear hears them. Most phone apps and sound level meters show dBA by default, so their readings can be compared with this chart.

Why your reading may not match the chart

A chart gives typical values. A real reading depends on:

Distance. Outdoors, every doubling of the distance from a single source lowers the level by about 6 dB. A lawn mower measured at the handle and from across the garden are two different numbers.
The room. Hard walls and floors reflect sound, so the same music is louder in a small bare room than in a furnished one.
The source itself. Two hair dryers or two motorcycles of different models can differ by several decibels.
Averaging. A peak reading and an average over a minute can be far apart. Health limits use the average.

So the chart tells you roughly where a sound sits; measuring tells you what you are actually exposed to.

Measure the sounds on this chart yourself

A phone sound meter app gives a quick estimate. Hold the phone at arm's length with the microphone uncovered, measure for at least 30 seconds and read the average. Our guides on how to measure decibels on Android and on iPhone cover the details.

Sources

WHO, Deafness and hearing loss: safe listening
NIDCD, Noise-induced hearing loss, updated 16 April 2025
NIOSH, Noise and hearing loss

Updated 23 October 2026 by the SoundSense team at Just IT.