State of bathing waters in Europe

The annual report on the quality of bathing areas in Europe is prepared by the European Environment Agency (EEA). It is based on the analysis of water samples collected on 22 000 beaches across Europe: samples are assessed for bacteria indicating pollution from sewage or livestock.

In 2017, 96% of sites met the minimum quality requirements set out in the EU’s Bathing Water Directive, while 294 (1.4 %) were rated as having ‘poor’ water quality, and therefore had to be closed during the following bathing season. In 2017, 76 bathing water sites were poor or non-compliant for five years; 44 in Italy, 24 in France, four in Spain and one in Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands, respectively.

The report comes with an interactive map allowing to browse detailed data and rankings relating to the quality of bathing waters.