Aircraft noise potentially disturbs (or annoys) the daily activities (such as communication and relaxation) of residents living in the vicinity of airports. This particular type of annoyance undermines quality of life and can be a cause of stress. Evidence is emerging that appears to associate some forms of health risk with this stress. This research aims at developing a better understanding of the impacts of aircraft noise on community health and well-being. This paper presents the results of exploratory data analysis from a pilot survey and a social survey of 704 residents' responses (47% response rate) in Sydney that include people living close to the airport and a matched control group (not affected by aircraft noise). The paper also describes the development of a new noise metric, which has been termed the Noise Gap Index (NGI), to incorporate other background environmental noise and to describe and assess the impacts of aircraft noise on the health and well-being of residents.