Cities are ranked from the cleanest city to the most polluted, based on average concentration levels of fine particulate matter, (or PM2.5) over the past two calendar years.
The EEA's updated European city air quality viewer shows that people in Uppsala and Umeå, Sweden, and Faro, Portugal, enjoy the cleanest city air in Europe. In contrast the residents o Slavonski Brod in Croatia are breathing the worst city air in Europe covered by the data.
The EEA’s European city air quality viewer ranks 375 cities from the cleanest to the most polluted based on average levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The data was collected from over 500 monitoring stations at urban locations across EEA member countries over the past two calendar years, 2022 and 2023.
The viewer shows that only 13 European cities had average fine particulate concentrations that were below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) health-based guideline level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (5 μg/m3). These cities include four northern capitals: Reykjavik, Tallinn, Stockholm and Helsinki.
Rīga is ranked 121st out of 372 cities with "fair" air quality while Liepāja is more than 100 places behind in 225th place with "moderate" air quality. These are the only two Latvian cities included in the data.
Neighboring countries do somewhat better than Latvia. In Estonia, Tallinn is in 9th place with a "good" rating and Narva is just oneplace behind in 10th, also witha "good" rating. Tartu is in 17th place with a "fair" rating.
In Lithuania, Vilnius manages 24th place and a "fair" rating.
Later this year, the EEA will publish an analysis on the impacts of air pollution on ecosystems and human health. This includes estimates on deaths and ill health that can be attributed to poor air quality.
You can explore the data for yourself here: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/air-pollution/european-city-air-quality-viewer/european-city-air-quality-viewer
