Premature deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter PM2.5 NUTS2 and NUTS3 (2005-2023)

  • English

This data set presents mortality attributable to exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5*) at the NUTS 2 (basic regions) and NUTS 3 (small regions) levels, since 2005. This indicator is based on the HRA calculations published at https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub/datahubitem-view/49930245-dc33-4c47-93b8-9512f0622ebc



*PM2.5 are particulates whose diameter is less than 2.5 micrometers and which can be carried deep into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and exacerbate the condition of people suffering heart and lung diseases.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2025-12-04
Date (Publication)
2025-12-05
Edition

01.00

Citation identifier
eea_s_eu-sdg-nuts23-11-52_p_2005-2023_v01_r00

Identifier

Code
10.2909/9770b4f2-352e-4a0b-af80-c09ec7961b33
Codespace

doi.org

Description

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Point of contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

http://www.eea.europa.eu

Point of contact

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

Custodian
Topic category
  • Environment

Extent

Temporal extent

Time period
2005-01-01 2023-12-31
Maintenance and update frequency
Annually
Date
2026-11
Date type
Next Update
GEMET
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.

  • Norway

  • Albania

  • EU27 (from 2020)

  • Liechtenstein

  • Serbia

  • North Macedonia

  • Iceland

  • Montenegro

  • Switzerland

Reporting obligations
EEA Management Plan

  • 2024 3.2.2

EEA topics
Unit of measure

  • Number

Available breakdowns

  • NUTS2

  • NUTS3

Reference period

  • Calendar year

Resource constraints

Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

License CC-BY 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

Language
English

Distribution Information

Distribution format

  • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)

  • ascii (.csv, .txt, .sql)

  • SQL REST Endpoint

  • JSON

OnLine resource

https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/webdav/datastore/public/eea_s_eu-sdg-nuts23-11-52_p_2005-2023_v01_r00

OnLine resource

Direct download

OnLine resource

EEA Indicator AIR007: Premature deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter in Europe

OnLine resource

AQ Viewer: Burden of disease of air pollution (Countries & NUTS)

OnLine resource

Eurostat indicator: Premature deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5)

OnLine resource

ETC HE Report 2023/3: Air quality maps of EEA member and cooperating countries for 2021. PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, NOx and BaP spatial estimates and their uncertainties

OnLine resource

[AirQualityIndicators].[latest].[hra_pm25_EU_SDG_11_52]

OnLine resource

[AirQualityIndicators].[latest].[hra_pm25_EU_SDG_11_52]

OnLine resource

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Report

Name of measure

Frequency of dissemination

Measure description

Indicator is updated annually.

Result

Value
Every year

Report

Name of measure

Timeliness

Measure description

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

Result

Value
T+2 years

Report

Name of measure

Reference area

Measure description

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia.

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Comparability - geographical

Measure description

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

Data for all countries are comparable, since the concentrations are based on the interpolated maps, the demographics data on national data reported to Eurostat and the mortality calculations are done following the same methodology for all countries.

Result

Value
All EU MS

Report

Name of measure

Time coverage

Measure description

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2005.

Result

Value
> 10 years

Report

Name of measure

Comparability - over time

Measure description

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is longer than 4 data points.



The year 2006 is missing because there are no interpolated PM2.5 maps for that year. There are no methodological breaks, since the time series is recalculated every year (e.g., the last update took into consideration the latest methodology for the whole series).

Result

Value
> 4 data points

Resource lineage

Statement

To estimate the mortality attributed to air pollution, EEA follows the recommendations provided by the WHO in its more recent update of its Global air quality guidelines (Source: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/345329). Therefore, a relative risk of 0.08 has been used for PM2.5. This implies that the risk of dying prematurely increases by 8% per each increase in 10µg/m3 in the annual mean PM2.5 concentrations.

Furthermore, only the impact above annual concentrations of 5µg/m3 (the 2021 WHO AQ guideline level) are calculated. So, EEA estimates the mortality attributable to not reaching this recommended WHO AQ guideline level. This approach has been followed to calculate the mortality for all years.



The main uncertainty is associated with the concentration-response functions used in the calculation of the mortality. That uncertainty is calculated as a confidence interval around a mean or central estimate. The EEA uses a 95 % confidence interval. This implies that there is 95 % probability that the true value lies in the range defined by the interval. The upper and lower limits of the interval are included in the tables accessible via "Source datasets".

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Source

Metadata

Metadata identifier
9770b4f2-352e-4a0b-af80-c09ec7961b33

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Website Role

European Environment Agency

sdi@eea.europa.eu

Point of contact

Type of resource

Resource type
Non geographic dataset
Name

Tabular dataset

Metadata linkage

https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/api/records/9770b4f2-352e-4a0b-af80-c09ec7961b33

Date info (Creation)
2025-12-04T07:32:44.529427Z
Date info (Revision)
2026-01-22T07:10:48.890118Z

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115/19139

Edition

1.0

 
 
Access to the catalogue

Overviews

Spatial extent

Keywords

Available breakdowns

NUTS2 NUTS3
EEA Management Plan

2024 3.2.2
EEA topics

Air pollution Environmental health impacts Health Pollution Sustainability
GEMET

air pollution environmental health impact assessment pollution statistical data sustainable development goals
Reference period

Calendar year
Reporting obligations

(D) Information on the assessment methods (Articles 8 and 9) - for fixed and indicative measurements (E1a) Information on primary validated assessment data - measurements (Article 10)
Unit of measure

Number


Provided by

Access to the catalogue