According to the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the updated air quality barometer in European cities, which includes more than 340 cities, Umeå is the cleanest city in Europe in terms of air quality, followed by Faro and then Funchal.

Cities with air considered to be good includes eight more European cities, followed by another Portuguese city, Lisbon, in position 82, with an air quality considered reasonable.

In the last three positions, as the most polluted, are Padova and Cremona, in Italy, and Nowy Sacz, in Poland.

According to the EEA, the classifications were obtained based on the average levels of fine particles (PM2.5) obtained in more than 400 monitoring stations in the last two years. The barometer focuses on PM2.5 as exposure to this air pollution causes the most serious health effects and has the greatest impact in terms of premature death and illness.

From the data analysis, the AEA concludes that air quality was considered good in only 11 cities, with PM2.5 levels below the values ​​established by the World Health Organization (WHO) for long-term exposure to fine particles: five micrograms per cubic meter of air. These values ​​were exceeded in 97% of the 343 European cities included in the barometer.

Taking into account the European Union's annual limit value for fine particles of 25 micrograms per cubic meter of air, the limit value was only exceeded in the three most polluted cities, which shows the great difference between the WHO guideline and the norm of the European Union.