Silence Index · 2027

The 185 quietest destinations on Earth

Ranked on 5 objective criteria.

View full ranking →Scoring pillars

185Ranked destinations5Scoring pillars

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Methodology

How we calculate the Silence Score

01Noise level

Measured or estimated day-evening-night noise (Lden/Lnight).

20 points

02Tourist density

Visitors relative to residents and to the calm capacity of the place.

20 points

03Green & pedestrian space

Share of parks, woodland, riverside and car-free streets.

20 points

04Night-time quiet

How quiet the place is between 23:00 and 07:00.

20 points

05Quiet walking

Kilometres of genuinely quiet, walkable paths.

20 points

Each destination scores 0–100, the sum of five pillars worth 20 points each. Every pillar is anchored on published data where it exists: EEA environmental noise reporting, ISGlobal’s city rankings, SEPA’s strategic noise maps, the money.co.uk 2025 study of 23 European cities, and World Population Review’s urban silence analysis.

Why it matters

The quietest places, measured differently.

We go beyond impressions. Our 5-pillar index reveals the places where silence is real, measurable and lasting.

92/100

#1UbudBali, Indonesia

91/100

#2Scottish HighlandsScotland, UK

91/100

#3Faroe IslandsDenmark

Top 10

The ten quietest places on Earth to travel

From the rice terraces of Ubud to the island calm of Djerba — the ten highest Silence Scores of 2027.

View full ranking →

Ubud

92/100

Bali, Indonesia

Rice terraces, jungle temples and a town that never learned to rush.

Scottish Highlands

91/100

Scotland, UK

Lochness-size silence: the most sparsely populated region of Britain.

Faroe Islands

91/100

Denmark

Cliff-walled fjords and grass-roof villages under Arctic light.

Stewart Island

91/100

New Zealand

The world’s quietest island — dark skies, kiwi calls and 267,000-island calm.

Norwegian Fjords

90/100

Norway

Deep water, high walls and a silence you can hear between waterfalls.

Svalbard

90/100

Norway

Polar bears, glaciers and the deepest Arctic hush on Earth.

Abisko

90/100

Sweden

Aurora skies and the King’s Trail — Lapland’s silent observatory.

Lofoten

89/100

Norway

Arctic peaks over fishing cabins — midnight sun, midwinter hush.

Patagonia

89/100

Chile

Granite towers and steppe wind at the end of the map.

Wadi Rum

89/100

Jordan

Red canyons and Bedouin star-silence — Petra’s desert twin.

The full ranking

From the rice terraces of Ubud to the island calm of Djerba — the ten highest Silence Scores of 2027.

1	Ubud	Bali, Indonesia	Small towns	92
2	Scottish Highlands	Scotland, UK	Nature	91
3	Faroe Islands	Denmark	Nature	91
4	Stewart Island	New Zealand	Nature	91
5	Norwegian Fjords	Norway	Nature	90
6	Svalbard	Norway	Nature	90
7	Abisko	Sweden	Nature	90
8	Lofoten	Norway	Nature	89
9	Patagonia	Chile	Nature	89
10	Wadi Rum	Jordan	Nature	89
11	Reykjavik	Iceland	Cities	88
12	Luang Prabang	Laos	Small towns	88
13	Isle of Skye	Scotland, UK	Nature	88
14	Atacama	Chile	Nature	88
15	Galapagos	Ecuador	Islands	88
16	Anafi	Greece	Islands	88
17	Düsseldorf	Germany	Cities	87
18	Oslo	Norway	Cities	87
19	Socotra	Yemen	Islands	87
20	Dolomites	Italy	Nature	87
21	Azores	Portugal	Islands	87
22	Ilha Grande	Brazil	Islands	87
23	Helsinki	Finland	Cities	86
24	Stockholm	Sweden	Cities	86
25	Petra	Jordan	Small towns	86
26	Namibia	Namibia	Nature	86
27	Espot	Spain	Small towns	86
28	South Caicos	Turks & Caicos	Islands	86
29	El Nido	Philippines	Islands	86
30	Savoie	France	Nature	86
31	La Digue	Seychelles	Islands	86
32	Aitutaki	Cook Islands	Islands	86
33	Uyuni	Bolivia	Nature	86
34	Bern	Switzerland	Cities	85
35	Copenhagen	Denmark	Cities	85
36	Djerba	Tunisia	Islands	85
37	Thimphu	Bhutan	Small towns	85
38	Madeira	Portugal	Islands	85
39	Vis	Croatia	Islands	85
40	Big Sky	USA	Small towns	85
41	Rarotonga	Cook Islands	Islands	85
42	Dominica	Dominica	Islands	85
43	Aberdeen	Scotland, UK	Cities	84
44	Ljubljana	Slovenia	Cities	84
45	Salzburg	Austria	Cities	84
46	Alentejo	Portugal	Small towns	84
47	Easter Island	Chile	Islands	84
48	Mljet	Croatia	Islands	84
49	Okinawa	Japan	Islands	84
50	Phu Quoc	Vietnam	Islands	84
51	Taveuni	Fiji	Islands	84
52	Tallinn	Estonia	Cities	83
53	Paro	Bhutan	Small towns	83
54	Corsica	France	Islands	83
55	La Gomera	Spain	Nature	83
56	Gramado	Brazil	Small towns	83
57	Ella	Sri Lanka	Small towns	83
58	Paros	Greece	Islands	83
59	Tikal	Guatemala	Nature	83
60	Edinburgh	Scotland, UK	Cities	82
61	Hydra	Greece	Islands	82
62	Kanazawa	Japan	Cities	82
63	Chefchaouen	Morocco	Small towns	82
64	Nafplio	Greece	Small towns	82
65	Matera	Italy	Small towns	82
66	Dresden	Germany	Cities	82
67	Sardinia	Italy	Islands	82
68	Bergen	Norway	Cities	82
69	Rovaniemi	Finland	Cities	82
70	Kerala	India	Nature	82
71	Yangshuo	China	Small towns	82
72	Ronda	Spain	Small towns	82
73	Vang Vieng	Laos	Small towns	82
74	Lalibela	Ethiopia	Small towns	82
75	Trieste	Italy	Cities	81
76	Giethoorn	Netherlands	Small towns	81
77	Kotor	Montenegro	Small towns	81
78	Sintra	Portugal	Small towns	81
79	Ghent	Belgium	Cities	81
80	Vienna	Austria	Cities	81
81	Gotland	Sweden	Islands	81
82	Pokhara	Nepal	Cities	81
83	Savannah	USA	Small towns	81
84	Sapa	Vietnam	Small towns	81
85	Ushuaia	Argentina	Cities	81
86	Kyoto	Japan	Cities	80
87	Lake Bohinj	Slovenia	Nature	80
88	Bruges	Belgium	Small towns	80
89	Rovinj	Croatia	Small towns	80
90	Hoi An	Vietnam	Small towns	80
91	Siem Reap	Cambodia	Small towns	80
92	Bali	Indonesia	Islands	80
93	Menorca	Spain	Islands	80
94	Kandy	Sri Lanka	Cities	80
95	Oulu	Finland	Cities	80
96	Annecy	France	Cities	80
97	Bariloche	Argentina	Cities	80
98	Tartu	Estonia	Cities	80
99	Antigua Guatemala	Guatemala	Small towns	80
100	Salalah	Oman	Cities	80
101	Apia	Samoa	Cities	80
102	Hallstatt	Austria	Small towns	79
103	Valletta	Malta	Islands	79
104	Chiang Mai	Thailand	Cities	79
105	Plovdiv	Bulgaria	Cities	79
106	Munich	Germany	Cities	79
107	Trabzon	Türkiye	Cities	79
108	Mostar	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Small towns	79
109	Colmar	France	Cities	79
110	Olomouc	Czechia	Cities	79
111	Bukhara	Uzbekistan	Small towns	79
112	Lisbon	Portugal	Cities	78
113	Banff	Canada	Small towns	78
114	Cusco	Peru	Cities	78
115	Oaxaca	Mexico	Cities	78
116	Dublin	Ireland	Cities	78
117	Hamburg	Germany	Cities	78
118	Samarkand	Uzbekistan	Cities	78
119	Zanzibar	Tanzania	Islands	78
120	Sibiu	Romania	Cities	78
121	Graz	Austria	Cities	78
122	Asunción	Paraguay	Cities	77
123	Hobart	Tasmania, Australia	Cities	77
124	Essaouira	Morocco	Cities	77
125	San Miguel de Allende	Mexico	Small towns	77
126	Tbilisi	Georgia	Cities	77
127	Krakow	Poland	Cities	77
128	Verona	Italy	Cities	77
129	Montreal	Canada	Cities	77
130	Vancouver	Canada	Cities	77
131	Penang	Malaysia	Cities	77
132	Hilo	Hawaii, USA	Islands	76
133	Fes	Morocco	Cities	76
134	Bologna	Italy	Cities	76
135	Granada	Spain	Cities	76
136	Bilbao	Spain	Cities	76
137	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	Cities	76
138	Montevideo	Uruguay	Cities	75
139	Český Krumlov	Czechia	Small towns	75
140	Prague	Czech Republic	Cities	75
141	Valencia	Spain	Cities	75
142	Medellin	Colombia	Cities	75
143	Baku	Azerbaijan	Cities	75
144	Almaty	Kazakhstan	Cities	75
145	Mexico City	Mexico	Cities	74
146	Albarracín	Spain	Small towns	74
147	Budapest	Hungary	Cities	74
148	Seville	Spain	Cities	74
149	Porto	Portugal	Cities	74
150	Cape Town	South Africa	Cities	74
151	Busan	South Korea	Cities	74
152	Varanasi	India	Cities	74
153	Tunis	Tunisia	Cities	73
154	Florence	Italy	Cities	73
155	Brussels	Belgium	Cities	73
156	Berlin	Germany	Cities	73
157	Sydney	Australia	Cities	73
158	Singapore	Singapore	Cities	72
159	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Cities	72
160	Cartagena	Colombia	Cities	72
161	Osaka	Japan	Cities	72
162	Melbourne	Australia	Cities	72
163	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Cities	71
164	Washington DC	USA	Cities	71
165	Marrakech	Morocco	Cities	70
166	Tokyo	Japan	Cities	70
167	Milan	Italy	Cities	70
168	Valparaiso	Chile	Cities	70
169	Santorini	Greece	Islands	70
170	Madrid	Spain	Cities	69
171	Seoul	South Korea	Cities	69
172	Manila	Philippines	Cities	68
173	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Cities	67
174	Rome	Italy	Cities	66
175	Istanbul	Turkey	Cities	66
176	Barcelona	Spain	Cities	65
177	Naples	Italy	Cities	64
178	Athens	Greece	Cities	63
179	London	UK	Cities	62
180	Cairo	Egypt	Cities	61
181	Hanoi	Vietnam	Cities	60
182	Dubai	UAE	Cities	59
183	Bangkok	Thailand	Cities	59
184	New York	USA	Cities	59
185	Paris	France	Cities	58

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

01What is the Silence Index?

It is the first global ranking of travel destinations by Silence Score, built by GlobalSilentWalks on five pillars: noise level, tourist density, green and pedestrian space, night-time quiet and quiet walking kilometres. One hundred eighty-five destinations are ranked in 2027, in five languages.

02How is the Silence Score calculated?

Each destination scores 0–100, the sum of five pillars worth 20 points each. Pillars are anchored on published data where it exists — EEA noise reporting, ISGlobal city rankings, SEPA Scotland noise maps, the money.co.uk 2025 study and World Population Review analyses — and on our own field audits for the rest.

03Why is Paris last in the ranking?

The money.co.uk 2025 study of 23 European cities ranked Paris as the noisiest big city in Europe, ahead of London and Rome. High density and near-constant traffic noise pull its pillars down — yet Paris still keeps a quiet side, which our guide explains.

04Which sources are used?

EEA “Environmental Noise in Europe 2025”, ISGlobal Ranking of Cities (749 European cities), SEPA Scotland strategic noise maps (CNOSSOS-EU Round 4), money.co.uk 2025 (23 cities), World Population Review 2025, and GlobalSilentWalks field audits. Each destination card displays its source.

05Can I find silence in a noisy city?

Yes. The ranking shows the city’s overall score, but every place has a quiet side — early hours, back streets, riverbanks and parks. Use the signature quiet walk on each card to find it, and read our full guide for the methodology.

The 185 quietest destinations on Earth

How we calculate the Silence Score

The quietest places, measured differently.

The ten quietest places on Earth to travel

The full ranking

Frequently asked questions

Find your next silent walk

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