Cars stuck in traffic, visible smog surrounds them.

In 2023, 12.2% of the EU population reported that pollution, grime or environmental issues affected their household, a decrease from 15.1% in 2019.

Malta had the highest share of population reporting such problems (34.7%), followed by Greece (20.5%) and Germany (16.8%).

By contrast, Croatia reported the lowest share (4.2%), ahead of Sweden (5.0%) and Slovakia (5.8%).

Source dataset: ilc_mddw02

At EU level, exposure to pollution, grime or other environmental problems increased with the degree of urbanisation. While 6.8% of people living in rural areas were affected, this share was 10.5% in town and suburbs and 17.2% in cities.

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Methodological note

The data presented in this article comes from 'Labour market and housing conditions’ module, collected every 3 years as part of EU statistics on income and living conditions. 

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