Europe's bathing waters safe for summer swimming

The bathing water assessment for the 2024 bathing season, which was carried out by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in co-operation with the European Commission and published today, found that a large majority of Europe's waters are safe to swim in.  

Over 85% of monitored locations met the European Union's most stringent ‘excellent' bathing water quality standards last year, while 96% of all officially identified bathing waters in the EU met the minimum quality standards. 

Overall, over 22,000 bathing water sites across all 27 EU member states, plus Albania and Switzerland were assessed. In five countries — Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria and Croatia — 95% or more of bathing waters were of excellent quality. Only 1.5% of the EU's bathing waters were found to be of poor quality. 

In large part thanks to EU legislation, bathing water has improved markedly over recent decades, making bathing now possible in many urban areas. While most of Europe's bathing waters are in excellent condition from a bacteriological perspective, chemical pollution of surface and groundwaters remains significant and may be exacerbated by the changing climate. Improving water resilience for people and for the environment is therefore crucial. 

Further information can be found in our press release. 

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