These three cities enjoy the cleanest air in Europe

Head to the Far North or to the Far South to breathe easily

Yesterday, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published its annual ranking report on the air quality of European cities. Once again, the data shows that the municipalities that perform best in that respect tend to be located in two distinctive geographical regions of the continent – Scandinavia and Southern Portugal (including Madeira).

Getting more specific, the city that boasts the most pristine air in Europe is Uppsala (Sweden), with 3.5 micrograms of fine particles per cubic metre. This municipality, located north of the capital Stockholm, has implemented a variety of measures to achieve success.

Uppsala has introduced measures such as banning studded tyres on parts of its main streets, a 30 km/h-zone in the city centre, an environmental zone for heavy vehicles, better cleaning of streets and signal prioritization for buses. In addition, the residents are encouraged to use more sustainable means of mobility, such as cycling, and the local culture facilitates getting into that mindset.

The other best performers in the top three are another Swedish city – Umeå (in the north of Sweden) and Faro (in the south of Portugal).

The overall view

What’s easily notable is the geographical stratification (and grouping) of cities with the cleanest air in Europe. There is the larger region of Scandinavia and a smaller one that includes the southernmost extremities of Portugal (including its Atlantic island of Madeira).

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.

The Environment Agency studies the levels of fine particulate matter in over 350 cities from across 30 EEA member countries. Data comes from on-the-ground measurements of fine particulate matter, taken by over 500 monitoring stations.