Eurostat: Greek Beaches Have Excellent Water Quality for Swimming

Greece ranked third country in the European Union with the most clean beaches for swimming on a list released recently by Eurostat with data on the share of coastal bathing sites in Europe with ‘excellent’ water quality.

According to the data, Greece recorded a slight drop in its percentage from 97.1 percent in 2020 to 95.8 percent in 2021, indicating that around 24 out of 25 Greek beaches have ‘excellent’ water quality for swimming.

Returning to the percentage of 2019 (95.8 percent), Greece is the third country in Europe with the most sites to swim with excellent quality water after Croatia (99.2 percent) and Malta (96.6 percent).

Slovenia (95.2 percent) and Spain (94.9 percent) complete the top five among the 22 member countries with coastal bathing sites.

The data of European bathing sites, compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA), shows how well environmental protection measures are implemented in Europe.

“The indicator assessment is based on microbiological parameters (intestinal enterococci and Escherichia coli),” Eurostat said.

The new Bathing Water Directive (adopted in 2006) requires member states to identify and assess the quality of all inland and marine bathing waters and to classify these waters as ‘poor’, ‘sufficient’, ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

Bathing water quality in the EU remains high. The share of ‘excellent’ sites in 2021 was 88.3 percent, against 88.4 percent in 2020.

Top 10

1. Croatia – 99.2%
2. Malta – 96.6%
3. Greece – 95.8%
4. Slovenia – 95.2%
5. Spain – 94.9%
6. Cyprus – 93.3%
7. Belgium – 92.7%
8. Portugal – 92.4%
9. Denmark – 91.4%
10. Bulgaria – 89.1%