EU Beach WaterQuality Guide

Official EU monitoring data

Is Your Beach
Safe to Swim?

Water quality data for 21973 European beaches. E. coli and enterococci results updated every bathing season.

Try: Barceloneta, Rimini, Dubrovnik, Santorini...

21973

Beaches Monitored

86%

Excellent Quality

855786%

Good or Better

329

Poor Quality

Explore by Country

Water quality data for the top EU countries by number of monitored beaches.

Italy

5529 beaches

89.6% excellent82 poor

France

3370 beaches

75.9% excellent93 poor

Germany

2292 beaches

90.2% excellent14 poor

Spain

2268 beaches

88.2% excellent37 poor

Greece

1682 beaches

96.6% excellent

Denmark

1039 beaches

94.3% excellent3 poor

Croatia

936 beaches

95.6% excellent1 poor

Netherlands

740 beaches

75% excellent25 poor

Poland

708 beaches

55.9% excellent18 poor

Portugal

666 beaches

84.8% excellent8 poor

Sweden

461 beaches

74.8% excellent19 poor

Finland

303 beaches

89.4% excellent7 poor

Hungary

279 beaches

63.1% excellent3 poor

Austria

260 beaches

96.9% excellent

Switzerland

196 beaches

78.1% excellent6 poor

Czechia

156 beaches

76.9% excellent

Ireland

148 beaches

79.1% excellent3 poor

Belgium

128 beaches

76.6% excellent

Lithuania

121 beaches

89.3% excellent

Cyprus

120 beaches

99.2% excellent

Albania

119 beaches

67.2% excellent8 poor

Bulgaria

96 beaches

92.7% excellent

Malta

87 beaches

94.3% excellent

Estonia

65 beaches

64.6% excellent1 poor

Latvia

58 beaches

75.9% excellent1 poor

Romania

50 beaches

Slovenia

47 beaches

78.7% excellent

Slovakia

32 beaches

59.4% excellent

Luxembourg

17 beaches

76.5% excellent

How EU Beach Water Quality Works

Rigorous science behind the ratings you see on every beach page.

Step 01

Lab-Tested Data

Every season, water samples are taken from 22,000+ European bathing waters and tested for E. coli and intestinal enterococci bacteria.

Step 02

4-Year Rolling Average

Quality classification uses the 95th percentile of a rolling 4-year dataset. This smooths out individual bad readings and shows real trends.

Step 03

4 Quality Ratings

Beaches are rated Excellent, Good, Sufficient, or Poor. Member states must take action when a beach is rated Poor for 5 consecutive years.

About EU Bathing Water Quality

The EU Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) requires all member states to monitor and report the quality of designated bathing waters each year. Water samples are collected at least four times per bathing season and tested for two faecal indicator bacteria: E. coli and intestinal enterococci.

Classification is based on the 95th or 90th percentile of results over a four-year rolling period, ensuring a single contamination event does not permanently affect a beach's rating. Beaches are rated Excellent, Good, Sufficient, or Poor. When a site is classified as Poor for five consecutive years, the responsible authority must issue a permanent advisory against bathing.

Our data comes from the European Environment Agency (EEA), which compiles reports from 29 countries across the European Economic Area. New results are published each June following the previous bathing season. This site is an independent project and is not affiliated with the EEA or any government body.