Air quality status in Europe 2026

Air pollution is Europe’ s greatest environmental health risk. It reduces quality of life, causes diseases and leads to preventable deaths. Air pollution has steadily decreased across Europe over the last two decades. In particular, this is due to the implementation of European, national and local legislation to reduce emissions of air pollutants and improve air quality. As part of these policies, the European Union (EU) has set air quality standards to reduce the risks posed by air pollution.

This report analyses the latest reported concentrations of air pollutants in Europe against current and future (2030) EU standards and the stricter World Health Organization (WHO) guideline levels.

Key messages:

• Air quality continues to improve, but in up to 20% of monitoring stations in Europe air pollution is still above the current EU air quality standards, especially for particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns (µm) or less (PM10), ground-level ozone (O3) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP).
• While some regions are already meeting the 2030 EU standards, further reductions are still needed across Europe to protect health.
• For most pollutants, concentrations remain well above the levels established by the WHO air quality guideline levels, with more than 9 out of 10 Europeans exposed to air pollution concentrations above those levels.
• Reducing air pollution reduces impacts on health and associated economic costs such as healthcare and absenteeism caused by pollution-related illnesses.