Europe’s air quality status 2023

Air pollution is the largest environmental health risk in Europe, causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that lead to the loss of healthy years of life and, in the worst cases, to preventable deaths. This briefing presents the status of concentrations of pollutants in ambient air in 2021 and 2022 for regulated pollutants, in relation to both EU air quality standards and the 2021 WHO guideline levels. The assessment shows that, in spite of constant improvements, exceedances of air quality standards are common across the EU, with concentrations well above the latest WHO recommendations.

This briefing assesses levels of air pollutants in ambient air across Europe and compares them against both European Union (EU) standards as set out in the ambient air quality directives and the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) global air quality guidelines. The EU air quality standards are less strict for all pollutants than the WHO air quality guideline levels.

Under the European Green Deal’s Zero Pollution Action Plan, the European Commission set the 2030 goal of reducing the number of premature deaths caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5, a key air pollutant), by at least 55% compared with 2005 levels. To this end, the European Commission published in 2022 a proposal to review the ambient air quality directives, aiming, among other things, to align the air quality standards more closely with WHO recommendations.

Despite reductions in emissions, in 2021 most of the EU’s urban population was exposed to levels of key air pollutants that are damaging to health (see Figure 1). In particular, 97% of the urban population was exposed to concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) above the 2021 WHO annual guideline of 5 µg/m3.

Figure 1. Share of the EU urban population exposed to air pollutant concentrations above certain EU standards and WHO guidelines in 2021

Learn more: European Environment Agency