The ranking join in one line
According to the EEA Air Quality Status Report 2025 (AEI 2023) and Burden of Disease 2022, Poland is #1 of 28 by PM2.5 AEI (16.0 µg/m³) at premature-death rank 2 ≠ Italy #1 of 27 by PM2.5-attributable premature deaths (51,000) at AEI rank 8.
- 16.0 µg/m³
- Poland PM2.5 AEI (#1 of 28)
- #2
- Poland premature-death rank
- 51,000
- Italy PM2.5 deaths (#1 of 27)
- #8
- Italy PM2.5 AEI rank
This extract has no city table
The path still says cities because that URL is already in sitemaps. The country table behind this portal stores EEA Average Exposure Indicator (AEI) 2023 PM2.5 for 28 EU+UK rows and Burden of Disease 2022 premature-death counts for the rows that publish them. There is no population-weighted city series to rank, so this page no longer types city microgram figures.
Concentration is not burden
AEI is a three-year urban-background mean for the country. Premature deaths are a modeled count from the same pollutant family times the population living in that air. A smaller country can lead AEI while a larger country leads deaths. That split is the information gain; it is not a ranking of where to live.
Why a city mean would still not match AEI
Even where a city network exists, the average depends on which stations are included. Traffic-heavy sites pull the mean up; background sites pull it down. EEA AEI applies a 1 km population overlay (GHS-POP) and CAMS reanalysis so country rows are comparable. Station pages on this site are classification-adjusted modeled estimates from the national AEI, never an independent city reading.
What to open next
The 28-country PM2.5 ranking lives at /countries/. Each country detail page states that country's own AEI rank. The PM2.5 guideline checker and two-country comparator live at /tools/.
Source: European Environment Agency Air Quality Status Report 2025, Table 3, AEI 2023.
Source: European Environment Agency Burden of Disease from air pollution, 2022 assessment.
Frequently asked questions
- Which country has the highest PM2.5 AEI in this extract?
- Poland is #1 of 28 by EEA Average Exposure Indicator 2023 (16.0 µg/m³), from the Air Quality Status Report 2025. That rank is population-weighted country exposure, not a city mean.
- Which country has the most PM2.5-attributable premature deaths?
- Italy is #1 of 27 reporting countries at 51,000 modeled deaths (EEA Burden of Disease 2022), at AEI rank 8. The United Kingdom has an AEI row but no BoD death count in this extract, so the death ranking denominator is 27, not 28.
- Why is the highest-AEI country not the death-count leader?
- AEI is a concentration. Deaths scale with concentration and with how many people live in that air. Poland can lead AEI while Italy leads deaths. This page does not turn either rank into a breathing recommendation.
- Do you rank European cities for air quality?
- No. This extract has country AEI rows and a 39-station sample. It has no city population-weighted table, so this URL does not publish city µg/m³ lists. City networks also mix traffic and background sites, which is why EEA publishes country AEI instead of a raw city mean.
- Why can a city ranking mislead even when a number is published elsewhere?
- Each city's reported value depends on which stations enter the average: traffic-heavy networks appear worse, background-weighted networks appear better. The EEA population-weighted AEI uses a 1 km population overlay (GHS-POP) and CAMS reanalysis, which is comparable across countries. That is the series this portal ranks.