The worst offenders appeared to be students moving in and out of North Dunedin, and the most annoying noises loud stereos followed distantly by loud machinery and loud bars.
Figures show 2601 complaints were made to the Dunedin City Council in the year to the end of November - more than 230 complaints each month.
The complaints were almost all about excessive stereo noise. The next worst offending noises were from machinery, bands and social functions and alarms going off.
The figures do not include the properties or streets against which the highest numbers of complaints were made.
While there were particular issues in both North and South Dunedin, it was not appropriate to identify the exact addresses or streets because it could negatively affect other residents of the streets, council environmental health team leader Ros Macgill said.
In North Dunedin, complaints were worst in February and October as students moved in and out of the area, she said.
When a complaint was received a noise control officer was dispatched. They made a subjective assessment as to whether the noise was unreasonable or not.
If it was not excessive, but could be heard from the boundary, the officer would ask the person to reduce the noise to a reasonable level.
If it was considered excessive, the offender was instructed to either turn it down or turn it off and issued with an excessive noise direction. If the person reoffended within 72 hours, the source of the noise was seized.
From January 1 to October 31 last year 549 noise directions were issued in Dunedin and 47 seizures made.
Ms McGill said she believed the council kept "pretty good" control of noise, and clamped down hard on anyone who did not heed warnings.
