The intention of this review is to document and compare the results of previous studies on noise assessment, in particular housing situations and to demonstrate the impact and significance of the noise problem for farm animal welfare, housing, design and management. Environmental and communication noises are present in animal housings. Although the majority of the literature suggests that farming animals and wildlife species exhibit adaptation after repeated exposure to noise, careful planning should be made before construction of the animal building, in order to avoid stressful environmental sounds both for the animal and personnel.