All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodiesNutrient trends in European water bodies
Chart (static)
This figure shows the trends in nitrate concentrations in European groundwater bodies and rivers, phosphate in rivers and total phosphorus concentration in lakes.
- Waterbase - Water Quality ICM, 2023, European Environment Agency (EEA)
- Albania
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Switzerland
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Germany
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Spain
- Finland
- France
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Malta
- Portugal
- Serbia
- Slovenia
- Slovakia
- North Macedonia
- Poland
- Romania
- Sweden
- Croatia
- Norway
- Iceland
- Netherlands
- Lithuania
Units
Nitrate in groundwater: mgNO3/l
Nitrate in rivers: mgNO3-N/l
Phosphate in rivers: mgPO4-P/l
Total phosphorus concentration in lakes: mgP/l
Nitrate in groundwater:
Two time series are shown – a longer time series representing fewer monitoring sites and a shorter time series representing more monitoring sites.
The number of groundwater bodies included per country is given in parenthesis:
1992-2022: Europe (472), Austria (14), Belgium (24), Bulgaria (25), Denmark (1), Estonia (13), Finland** (7), France (260), Germany (68), Ireland (49), Portugal (2), Slovakia (3), Slovenia (5), Spain (1).
2000-2022: Europe (1016), Austria (16), Belgium (37), Bulgaria (40), Cyprus (6), Czechia (64), Denmark (4), Estonia (13), Finland** (8), France (452), Germany (177), Ireland (65), Italy (10), Latvia (11), Malta (2), Portugal (10), Serbia (21), Slovakia (15), Slovenia (6), Spain (22), Switzerland (37).
(* = all data total oxidised nitrogen, ** = some data total oxidised nitrogen)".
Nitrate in rivers:
Two time series are shown – a longer time series representing fewer monitoring sites and a shorter time series representing more monitoring sites. The number of river monitoring sites included per country is given in parenthesis:
1992-2022: Europe (628), Albania (3), Belgium (26), Czechia (21), Denmark* (36), Estonia (34), Finland** (60), France** (2), Germany (121), Ireland** (4), Latvia (13), Lithuania (22), Poland (13), Slovakia (8), Slovenia (7), Spain** (144), Sweden* (108), Switzerland (6).
2000-2022: Europe (987), Albania (7), Belgium (34), Cyprus (13), Czechia (21), Denmark* (37), Estonia (36), Finland** (69), France** (2), Germany (124), Iceland (1), Ireland** (50), Italy (25), Latvia (16), Lithuania (22), North Macedonia (17), Poland (16), Romania (87), Serbia (33), Slovakia (8), Slovenia (8), Spain** (235), Sweden* (110), Switzerland (16).
(* = all data total oxidised nitrogen, ** = some data total oxidised nitrogen)".
Phosphate in rivers:
Two time series are shown – a longer time series representing fewer monitoring sites and a shorter time series representing more monitoring sites. The number of river monitoring sites included per country is given in parenthesis:
1992-2022: Europe (403), Belgium (24), Bulgaria (31), Czechia (8), Denmark (38), Estonia (35), Finland (59), Ireland (4), Latvia (13), Lithuania (22), Norway (18), Slovakia (6), Spain (31), Sweden (108), Switzerland (6).
2000-2022: Europe (669 ), Albania (3), Belgium (28), Bulgaria (52), Croatia (16), Czechia (8), Denmark (39), Estonia (37), Finland (66), Iceland (1), Ireland (33), Italy (18), Latvia (16), Lithuania (22), North Macedonia (17), Norway (18), Romania (87), Serbia (33), Slovakia (6), Spain (43), Sweden (110), Switzerland (16).
Total phosphorus concentration in lakes:
Two time series are shown – a longer time series representing fewer monitoring sites and a shorter time series representing more monitoring sites. The number of river monitoring sites included per country is given in parenthesis:
1992-2022: Europe (267), Austria (5), Denmark (5), Estonia (7), Finland (143), Germany (3), Lithuania (2), Netherlands (6), Norway (2), Slovenia (2), Sweden (92).
2000-2022: Europe (351), Austria (27), Belgium (1), Bulgaria (1), Croatia (8), Denmark (5), Estonia (8), Finland (167), France (1), Germany (6), Lithuania (3), Netherlands (6), Norway (3), Poland (9), Romania (2), Serbia (3), Slovenia (3), Sweden (97).
Methodology
Annual mean concentrations are used as a basis in the indicator analyses. Unless the country reports aggregated data, the aggregation to annual mean concentrations is done by the EEA.
Automatic quality control procedures are applied both to the disaggregated and aggregated data, excluding data failing the tests from further analysis. In addition, a semi-manual procedure is applied, focusing on suspicious values having a major impact on the country time series and on the most recently reported data. This comprises e.g.:
• outliers.
• consecutive values deviating strongly from the rest of the time series.
• whole time series deviating strongly in level compared to other time series for that country and determinant.
• where values for a specific year are consistently far higher or lower than the remaining values for that country and determinant.
• Such values are removed from the analysis and checked with the country.
For time series analyses, only complete series after inter/extrapolation are used. This is to ensure that the aggregated time series are consistent, i.e. including the same sites throughout. Inter/extrapolation of gaps up to 3 years are allowed, to increase the number of available time series. At the beginning or end of the data series, missing values are replaced by the first or last value of the original data series, respectively. In the middle of the data series, missing values are linearly interpolated. The selected time series are aggregated to country and European level by averaging across all sites for each year.