Air pollution linked to over 180,000 deaths in the EU. Which country was hit the hardest?

Air pollution has been linked to thousands of preventable deaths in the European Union, despite a “significant” improvement in air quality.

A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) found that between 2005 and 2023, premature deaths attributable to fine particulate matter fell by 57 per cent.

Despite this, unsafe levels of air pollution resulted in a staggering 182,000 deaths in 2023.

Still, 95 per cent of urban Europeans are exposed to air pollution levels “considerably” above recommendations set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Air pollution continues to be the top environmental risk to Europeans, according to the EEA, above other factors such as exposure to noise and chemicals or the risk of climate-related heatwaves.

What is particulate matter?

Often referred to as PM2.5, particulate matter is tiny particles in the air that have a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less.

If inhaled, they can cause or aggravate health issues such as asthma, ischemic heart disease and lung cancer. New evidence suggests high PM2.5 levels can also cause dementia.

PM2.5 primarily comes from human sources such as vehicle emissions, burning solid fuels, air fresheners and industrial processes such as emissions from manufacturing. It can also come from “natural sources” such as wildfires, which are being made more likely by climate change.

Which EU country was hit the hardest by air pollution?

According to the air quality health impact assessment, Italysuffered the biggest loss in 2023 with 43,083 deaths attributed to high PM2.5 concentrations.

This works out at 100.6 attributable deaths per 100,000 inhabitants at risk. It is also 407,949 years of life lost (YLL), a measure of health defined as the average number of additional years that people in a population could have statistically lived if they had not died due to a disease or group of diseases.

Poland followed suit with 25,268 attributable deaths, while Germany ranked third with 21,640 attributable deaths.

However, the highest relative impacts (YLL per 100,000 inhabitants 30 years and above) were observed in south-eastern European countries such as North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.

In contrast, Iceland suffered zero deaths from air pollution, while the report only attributed 34 deaths to long-term exposure to PM2.5 in Finland.

The lowest relative impacts of air pollution occurred in countries located in the north and north-west of Europe, including Sweden, Estonia and Norway.

The EU’s new air quality rules

The EEA’s report highlights the urgency of slashing air pollution, as outlined in the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive, which came into force on 10 December 2024.

The bill cuts the allowed annual limit value for PM2.5 by more than half, aligning 2030 EU air quality standards more closely with WHO recommendations. It also supports local authorities in strengthening provisions on air quality monitoring and modelling, and helps improve their air quality plans.

“Every year, polluted air causes about 250,000 premature deaths and costs the EU economy up to €850 billion,” Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall said last year.

“The new air quality rules will improve the quality of life for millions of Europeans and will further protect our biodiversity and ecosystems while boosting our economy.”

Roswall added that the new directive marked a “significant milestone” in helping make pollution an “issue of the past”.