Austria’s bathing waters have slipped from second to fourth place in an EU-wide quality ranking. According to a report published Friday by the European Environment Agency, 95.8 percent (last year: 96.9 percent) of sampled domestic rivers and lakes are of “excellent quality.” This places Cyprus (99.2 percent), Bulgaria, and Greece ahead of Austria.
As last year, 85.4 percent of some 22,000 monitored EU bathing sites—and 85 percent of all European sites (including Switzerland and Albania)—received the top rating in the 2024 EU Bathing Water Report. At the bottom are Hungary, Estonia, and Poland; Albania is last with only 16 percent of its 119 sites rated “excellent.”
Only 1.5 Percent Poor Quality
Ninety-six percent of sites met the Bathing Water Directive’s minimum standard—unchanged from last year—while 1.5 percent were of poor quality. Coastal waters generally outperform inland rivers and lakes: about 89 percent of EU coastal sites are “excellent” versus 78 percent of inland waters. The agency urges intensified measures—such as combined rainwater and untreated wastewater storage—to protect urban bathing sites.
No Chemical Pollutants Monitored
Under the 2006 Bathing Water Directive, monitoring focuses on E. coli and intestinal enterococci as fecal‐contamination indicators. Chemical pollutants are not tracked.
“We can all be glad that the vast majority of our bathing waters are clean enough to swim in,” said EEA Director Leena Ylä-Mononen. EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall added that Europeans can “swim with confidence” in most EU-designated sites and pledged to continue promoting high water quality amid climate challenges.
