The issue of resident’s exposure to environmental noise is related to a minimum of two complementary approaches: acoustics, as regards of its physical characterization, and social sciences regarding exposure, perception and communication with the concerned public. Acoucité and Bruitparif (two French organizations in charge of management and organization of urban noise observatories in France) have worked since 2011 on a proposal for a new index closer to the feeling of the population. This research is conducted within the framework of the Harmonica project funded by the European Commission (LIFE). As a result, the data analysis of an extensive 800 person survey, complemented by 240 home interviews and 120 laboratory interviews with public, associations, politicians, technicians, and experts in acoustics, can suggest some paths to develop new indexes taking into account the continuous and eventful nature of noise while receiving a better understanding and acceptance of the general public. This type of index could supplement the information produced by the conventional indexes and indicators (Lden, L 10 ...). This article aims to present the results obtained in the framework of these approaches developed from the urban, peri-urban and rural population in France.