According to European city air quality data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) for 2020 and 2021, the cleanest cities in Europe are Umeå in Sweden, and Faro and Funchal in Portugal. In addition, the EEA published two reports examining emissions of air pollutants covered by various EU and UNECE requirements.
The European city air quality viewer includes more than 340 cities. Cities are ranked from cleanest to most polluted based on average levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The data on which this ranking is based were obtained from more than 400 monitoring stations in EEA member countries over the last two calendar years.
From 2020 to 2021, only 11 cities had good air quality, meaning that PM2.5 levels were below the World Health Organization (WHO) health-based recommendation for long-term exposure to PM2.5, which is 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air (5 μg/m3). This limit was exceeded in 97% of the 343 European cities included in the survey.
In contrast, the annual PM2.5 limit of 25 μg/m3 set by the European Union (EU) was exceeded in only three of the most polluted cities, including Nowy Sącz in Poland, and Cremona and Padua in Italy, thus highlighting the disparity between WHO guidelines and the EU standard.