June 6, 2021 - Croatian swimming waters are of excellent quality, confirmed a new study of the European Environment Agency.

The study of swimming water quality for 2020 was conducted among thirty European countries, with Croatia coming fifth. An analysis by country showed that at least 95.6% of the swimming waters in Croatia are of excellent quality.

As reported by CEOWORLD magazine, Cyprus tops the list of cleanest swimming waters in Europe with 99.1% of excellent quality bathing waters, followed closely by Austria's 98.5%. Malta is in the third place with 97.7% and Greece comes fourth with 95.7%. 

According to the European Environment Agency, an agency of the European Union, 889 swimming areas in Croatia are of excellent quality, 29 are of good quality and only 6 are of sufficient quality. The great news is that there are no swimming waters whose quality can be classified as poor. In the study, both coastal and inland waters were monitored.

This survey also shows that Croatian waters are cleaner than those of some other popular tourist destinations, such as Portugal (in the 7th place, with 91.5% of excellent quality bathing waters) or Spain and Italy (both in the 8th place, with 88.4%). Croatia has also outrun its neighbours, Slovenia and Hungary, who took the 17th and the 23rd place on the list, respectively. 

It remains to be seen just how wisely Croatia is going to use this fact to its advantage.

CEOWORLD magazine cited the Commissioner of Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkevicius, who said, quote: ''Clean swimming waters are often seen as a given, but they are in fact one of Europe’s collective achievements. It is the result of the hard work of many people for many years. This year’s report confirms that European citizens can continue to enjoy very high standards of quality when swimming in European waters and that all measures must be taken to continue this process.''

screenshot/EEA interactive map

Individual bathing sites (points) are coloured according to the classification of bathing water quality, with blue indicating excellent water quality.

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