What are the dirtiest countries in Europe? I am sure you had the chance to look out our article 10 Cleanest Countries in The World and now we decided to go in another direction and bring you the 10 dirtiest countries in Europe. We scoured the internet and uncovered a few indicators that can be used for making this kind of a list. First two we used are the studies by European Environment Agency. This agency annually does studies on air pollution and bathing water quality in Europe. Countries with the worst quality air in Europe are Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Greece.
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Bathing water quality study didn’t just take water quality in consideration, but beach cleanliness too and made an overall ranking. Albania, Poland, Sweden and Greece ranked the worst.
Besides that we decided to take some more indicators in consideration. Zoover made a study about public toilet cleanliness in Europe. The countries with the dirtiest public toilets turned out to be France, Turkey, Greece and Poland.
To round it all we also took in consideration the cleanliness of the cities in certain countries, because that can show us how countries take care of their biggest cities and whether it is important to them to have a clean country.
Based on these 4 criteria and rankings, we created our list of the 10 dirtiest countries in Europe. To compile the list we assigned points to each country based on their place on the rankings mentioned earlier. On the first two rankings, air quality and water quality, we took the first 10 countries and gave them points from 10 to 1. We did the same for the ranking of dirtiest cities, combining two studies: one about the overall cleanliness of the city and one about cleanliness of the streets. And also we included the “dirtiest public toilets” criteria, awarding the highest ranking countries with points from 5 to 1. A country is included in our rankings only if they were flagged by at least 2 of the criteria.
10. Turkey
Doesn’t have great problems with pollution or water quality but dominates in having dirty toilets, and dirty city streets. Overall score: 7
9. Italy
Has big problems with the clean cites, and also is among the top 10 countries with bad air and water quality. Overall score: 10
8. Albania
Has dirtiest beaches and worst water quality in whole Europe. Also has problems with air pollution. Overall score: 10
7. Spain
It ranks high among the countries with dirty beaches, city streets and water quality. Overall score: 10
6. Sweden
Although you may not think Sweden is a dirty country, she is among the top 3 countries that has dirtiest beaches and worst water quality. Also the streets of the it’s cities are dirty according to tourists. Overall score: 12
5. Czech Republic
This country ranks high in bad air quality and water quality so it isn’t a surprise that she got onto our list of 10 Dirtiest Countries in Europe. Overall score: 12
4. Bulgaria
It has a highest air pollution level in the whole of Europe and also is 6th country in the ranking of the worst water quality. Overall score: 15
3. France
France is almost everywhere. It’s beaches are dirty and the water quality is bad. It has dirtiest public toilets in Europe and Paris is the 3rd dirtiest city in Europe. Overall score: 15
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2. Poland
Poland dominates in air pollution alongside Bulgaria, but also is shoulder to shoulder with Albania in having the worst water quality and dirtiest beaches. It doesn’t help that they have Europe’s 4th dirtiest public toilets. Overall score: 18
1. Greece
Absolute “winner” of 10 Dirtiest Countries in Europe. High air pollution, bad water quality, dirty beaches, dirty cities, dirty public toilets. You name it, Greece has it and because of that it is the dirtiest country in Europe. Overall score: 23
