Uppsala and Umeå have the cleanest air in Europe

The Swedish cities fare well in the EEA's latest report on air quality in European cities.

Uppsala and Umeå top the list – closely followed by Portuguese Faro – while Norrköping (7) and Stockholm (11) also rank high.

Gothenburg falls slightly lower (19) and Malmö even further from the top (41).

The levels rise rapidly as you approach the continent, so Malmö usually ranks a bit higher. But at the same time, the levels have dropped very sharply in just the past few years, says Johan Genberg Safont, administrator at the air unit of the Environmental Protection Agency.

High mortality rates

The basis for the ranking is measurements of very small particles that are easily transported in the air, taken in 2022 and 2023.

According to an earlier report from the EEA, the levels of these small particles have indeed decreased over the past 20 years. However, in 2021, it was estimated that 253,000 people in the EU died due to air pollution caused by these particles.

In the EEA's latest ranking, only 13 of the 375 examined cities meet the limit value set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the health-hazardous particles.

"Can do more"

This shows that there is more to be done, despite the positive Swedish figures, notes Johan Genberg Safont.

International cooperation is very important. But we can do more in Sweden as well, he says.

Even if we can't affect our levels that much, even the small reduction we can make is very important.

Uppsala has the cleanest air in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency's (EEA) ranking of European cities.

Here are the top 10 of the 375 examined cities.

1. Uppsala, 2) Umeå, 3) Faro (Portugal), 4) Reykjavik (Iceland), 5) Oulu (Finland), 6) Tampere (Finland), 7) Norrköping, 8) Funchal (Portugal), 9) Tallinn (Estonia), 10) Narva (Estonia).

Other Swedish cities examined:

11. Stockholm, 19) Gothenburg, 41) Malmö.

The worst air quality according to the examination is found in the cities of Slavonski Brod (Croatia), Nowy Sacz (Poland), and Cremona (Italy).

Source: European Environment Agency (EEA)