Exceedance of air quality standards in Europe

EU legislation has led to improvements in air quality. The percentage of urban citizens exposed to pollutant levels above EU legal standards set to protect human health fell between 2000 and 2020, in particular for PM_2.5and NO₂ (partly due to road transport emissions reductions in 2020 caused by Covid-19-related lockdown measures). For these pollutants, less than 1% of citizens were exposed to levels above EU legal standards in 2020. However, poor air quality remains a problem: in 2020, 12% of citizens were exposed to O₃ and 11% to PM₁₀ levels above EU standards.

^{Published: 19 Apr 2022 14:39 ‒ 25min read}

More than 70% of EU citizens live in urban areas, where high population densities and economic activities cause high levels of air pollution. Such exposure is linked to adverse health effects, such as respiratory and heart problems, and cancer. Particulate matter (PM), O₃, NO₂ and SO₂ are associated with serious health problems. The EU Air Quality Directives aim to protect health, vegetation and natural ecosystems by setting limit and target values for air pollutants (and long-term objectives for O₃).

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 (PM_2.5,) by at least 55% compared with 2005 levels.

For most pollutants, especially fine particles (PM_2.5) and NO₂, the percentage of people exposed to levels above EU standards has decreased since 2000. In 2020, less than 1% of the urban population lived in zones exceeding the EU limit values for PM_2.5 and NO₂. In the case of NO₂, this is partially because lockdown measures introduced in 2020 to stop or minimise the spread of Covid-19 led to a reduction in activity in the road transport sector.

For SO₂, the percentage exposed to levels above the limit value decreased between 2000 and 2020, to less than 0.1% in the period 2010-2020 (with a maximum of 2% in 2006). Therefore, these values are not exhibited in Figure 1.

However, levels above other EU standards are still recorded in many areas. For instance, although substantially lower than the 48% peak in 2003, in 2020, 11% of urban citizens were still exposed to PM with a diameter of 10µm or less (PM₁₀) above the EU daily limit value.

O₃ is a secondary pollutant formed from other pollutants in the presence of solar light. Its levels are determined by emissions and climatic conditions. The proportion of the population exposed to O₃ above EU target levels has fluctuated from a 64% peak in 2003 to 9% in 2014. Since this low value, the urban population exposure has been fluctuating to reach the second lowest value of 12% in 2020.

As there are relatively few reported measurements of BaP and these were not considered to be homogeneous across Europe until 2008, the values are not presented in Figure 1. Considering data reported after that year, the portion of the urban population exposed to concentrations above the BaP target value has shown a slight decrease from 31% before stabilising around 15-17% in the period 2017-2020.

The EU Clean Air Programme set the long-term objective of complying with WHO air quality guidelines, which are much stricter than the standards set by the EU Air Quality Directive and are based on what is considered necessary to ensure the protection of human health. The European Green Deal proposes to revise the EU air quality standards to align them more closely with the World Health Organization recommendations. Following this, the Commission initiated a revision of the ambient air quality directives, aiming, among other things, to align EU air quality standards more closely with WHO recommendations.

The WHO published new air quality guidelines in 2021, with generally lower levels than those in the 2005 version. This edition of the indicator includes 2021 WHO guidelines for the first time.

As there are relatively few reported measurements of BaP and these were not considered to be homogeneous across Europe until 2008, the values are not presented in the Figure 2. When considering the estimated 'reference level' for BaP, the portion of the population exposed has decreased from around 90%, in 2009, to 66% in 2020, the lowest value in the period 2008-2020.

The results for SO₂ show that the portion of the urban population exposed to concentrations above the daily WHO guideline reached a minimum of 1% in 2019 and 2020. Therefore, these values are also not displayed in Figure 2.

The new WHO air quality guidance values are much lower than previous values (except for SO₂) and therefore little progress can be seen when calculating the exposure retrospectively, except for PM₁₀. The proportion of the EU urban population exposed to concentrations above the 2021 WHO annual guideline value for PM₁₀ decreased from 97% in 2000 to 71% in 2020. For NO₂, the decrease for exposure above the 2021 WHO annual guideline value was from 100% to 89%. For O₃, the proportion of the population exposed to concentrations above the 2021 WHO short-term guideline value fluctuated between 93% and 98% in the period 2013-2020, with no decreasing trend over time. The same is true for PM_2.5, for which the share of the population exposed to annual averages above 5 µg/m³ ranged from 96% to 100%.

Supporting information

Definition

This indicator shows the fraction of the EU-27 urban population that is potentially exposed to ambient air concentrations of six key pollutants (PM_2.5, PM₁₀, O₃, NO₂, SO₂ and BaP) that are in excess of the EU limit or target values (EU, 2004, 2008) set for the protection of human health, and to concentrations of these pollutants in excess of the WHO Guidelines. Until now, the comparison was done with the 2005 edition of the WHO guidelines, and this year, for the first time, the update from 2021 is used.

The indicator is based on measurements of air pollutants as reported under the Air Quality Directivesand the Decisions on the exchange of information.

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Information on cities is obtained from the Urban Audit (UA) data. UA data collection, maintained by Eurostat, provides information and comparable measurements on the different aspects of the quality of urban life in selected European cities. The urban population considered is the total number of people represented by any of the urban monitoring stations in the 'core city' and the 'greater city' of the UA cities taking part in the calculations.

Initially, stations in the EEA air-quality database are spatially joined with UA core and, from 2016, greater cities in a geographical information system in order to select those stations that fall within the boundaries of the cities included in the UA collection. The selected stations include station types classified as 'urban traffic', 'suburban traffic', 'urban background' and 'suburban background'. Stations classified as 'industrial' are influenced by other local emissions and such environments are generally not representative for residential areas. The industrial stations are therefore not selected for the indicator calculations.

In this version, for the first time, the 2020 version of the UA has been used.

According to a study for the European Commission by Entec UK Limited, in Europe, on average, 5% of the city population lives closer than 100 metres from major roads and is therefore potentially exposed to concentrations measured at traffic stations. The remaining 95% of the city population is assumed to be exposed to urban and suburban background concentrations.

These percentages vary from country to country. To calculate them, national data on the population living closer than 100 metres from major roads have been taken from Appendix D. These data have been divided by the total population figures for 2001 according to the Eurostat census.

For Croatia and Malta there are no data on the 2001 population in that census, so the data in the publication Europe in Figures – Eurostat yearbook 2006-07 have been used. Furthermore, for Cyprus and Malta there are no data for people living close to roads in the study, so for them, and also for Turkey, the average value of 5% was used.

For PM₁₀, PM_2.5, O₃, NO₂ and SO₂, only stations with at least 75% of valid data per calendar year are used. That is, in the case of daily values, those having more than 274 valid daily values per calendar year (or 275 days in a leap year). And in the case of hourly values, having more than 6,570 valid hourly values per calendar year (or 6,588 hours in a leap year). For BaP, the minimum data time coverage accepted is 14% (51 days), according to the data quality objectives related to indicative measurements in the Directive 2004/107/EU.

For every year, each city (i) in country (j), and every pollutant, the total number of urban or suburban traffic stations (n_it) and the total number of urban or suburban background stations (n_ib) are obtained. P_tj % of the total population of the city (Pop_i) is proportionally assigned to each of the traffic stations and P_bj % of Pop_i is proportionally assigned to each of the background stations. So, every traffic station has an allocated population equal to ((P_tj / 100) * Pop_i / n_it) and every background station has an allocated population equal to ((P_bj /100) *Pop_i / n_ib).

For city and/or greater city geometries with no information on population in the Urban Audit data collection, population data have been retrieved from http://www.citypopulation.de/.

Methodology for gap filling

No related methodology for gap filling has been specified.

Methodology references

EC, 2006 - Development of a methodology to assess the population exposed to high levels of noise and air pollution close to major transport infrastructure, prepared by Entec UK Limited (Appendix D).

EC, 2007 - EUROPE IN FIGURES — Eurostat yearbook 2006-07.

EC, 2013, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — ‘A clean air programme for Europe’ (COM(2013) 918 final).

EC, 2019, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — The European Green Deal (COM/2019/640 final).

EC, 2020, Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 (COM/2020/652 final).

EC, 2021, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All EU Action Plan: 'Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil' (COM/2021/400 final).

EU, 1997 - Council Decision 97/101/EC on the exchange of information and data on ambient air quality, replaced by (EU, 2011).

EU, 2011 - Commission Implementing Decision 2011/850/EU laying down rules for Directive 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the reciprocal exchange of information and reporting on ambient air.

Eurostat 2022a - Urban Audit 202

Eurostat 2022b - Population by age groups and sex

WHO, 2000 - Air Quality Guidelines for Europe. Second edition. WHO Regional Publications, European Series, No. 91. World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.

WHO, 2006 - WHO air quality guidelines for particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Global update 2005. World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.

WHO, 2014 - Burden of disease from ambient air pollution for 2012 — Summary of results, World Health Organization, Geneva.

WHO, 2021 - WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter (‎PM_2.5 and PM₁₀)‎, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. World Health Organization.

Policy/environmental relevance

Context description

This indicator is relevant for current European air quality legislation related to the protection of human health in the Air Quality Directives 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC. Besides EU policies on air quality, it is also related to the 2005 WHO Air Quality Guidelines for protecting public health.

The objective of some strategic policy directions such as the Seventh Environment Action Programme (7th EAP) or the Clean Air for Europe Programme is to achieve levels of air quality that do not give rise to significant negative impacts on, and risks to, human health and the environment.

The EU Clean Air Policy Package, adopted by the European Commission on 18 December 2013, proposes in the Communication 'A Clean Air Programme for Europe' the short-term objective of achieving full compliance with existing legislation by 2020 at the latest; and the long-term objective of no exceedances of the WHO guideline levels for human health.

The European Green Deal, adopted by the European Commission on 11 December 2019, will improve the well-being and health of citizens and future generations by providing, among others, fresh air, more public transport, cleaner energy or longer lasting products. The European Green Deal proposes to revise the EU air quality standards to align them more closely with the World Health Organization recommendations. In this context, The Zero Pollution Action Plan, has the 2050 vision of reducing air pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems and the 2030 target of reducing premature deaths due to air pollution by more than 55%, in comparison with those in 2005.

Finally, the European Commission published a proposal for an 8th Environment Action Programme (EAP) on 14 October 2020. The proposal supports the environment objectives of the European Green Deal and reiterate the commitment to the 7th EAP’s 2050 vision.

Targets

No related targets have been specified.

Accuracy and uncertaintiesData sources and providersInstitutional mandate

Metadata

DPSIRTopicsTagsTemporal coverageGeographic coverage

TypologyUN SDGsUnit of measureFrequency of disseminationContact

BISE	Biodiversity Information System for Europe
Climate-ADAPT	Climate Adaptation Platform
Climate-Energy	Climate and Energy in the EU
Copernicus In Situ	Copernicus in situ component
Copernicus Land	Copernicus land monitoring

European Industrial Emissions Portal	EIEP
Forest Information System for Europe	FISE
Information Platform for Chemical Monitoring	IPCHEM
Marine Water Information System for Europe	WISE-Marine
Fresh Water Information System for Europe	WISE-FreshWater

Exceedance of air quality standards in Europe

Supporting information

Methodology for gap filling

Methodology references

Context description

Targets

Data sets uncertainty

Rationale uncertainty

Metadata

References and footnotes

Eionet

The EEA also contributes to

Follow us

Contact us