site.btaBulgaria Ranks Second Among European Countries with “Excellent” Bathing Water, According to European Environment Agency Data for 2024

In 2024, 96% of bathing waters in the European Union met minimum quality standards, with 85% rated as “excellent” and only 1.5% as “poor", according to European Environment Agency (EEA) data published on Friday. Bathing water quality levels remain unchanged from 2023.

Cyprus ranks first in the ranking, with 99.2% of the country's waters rated as “excellent” quality, followed by Bulgaria - 97.9%, Greece - 97%, Austria - 95.8% and Croatia - 95.2%.

Albania is at the bottom of the ranking, with only 16% of the country's water classified as “excellent,” which is a decline of more than 25 points on an annual basis.

Among more than 22,000 sites surveyed in 2024 in the EU, as well as in Albania and Switzerland, water quality was rated as “excellent,” 'good', ‘satisfactory’ or ‘poor’ based on the levels of bacteria detected, indicating pollution mainly from sewage or farm animals.

In 2023, 321 sites had “poor” water quality, with 67 of them showing improvement in 2024, the EEA notes.