Which European capitals have the most green spaces?

Aug 15, 2022

With the collaboration of Statista.

Having green spaces in urban areas is important on multiple counts. Image: Unsplash/Alexander Kagan

Anna Fleck

Data Journalist, Statista

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Having green spaces in urban areas is important: they provide space for community activities, wildlife habitats and are vital in the fight against global warming.
Tree cover can lower the temperature of a city by several degrees, providing shade and a process call evapotranspiration during heatwaves.
The Nordic city of Oslo has the greatest share of green space at 72%.

Having green spaces in urban areas is important on multiple counts. They not only provide communities with places to relax, exercise and socialize, but they also bring wildlife to the area and help in the fight against global warming through carbon dioxide sequestration. Tree cover can even lower the temperature of a city by several degrees during heat waves through providing shade and a process called evapotranspiration.

According to data from the European Environment Agency (EEA), trees cover on average 30 percent of land in 38 of Europe’s capitals when viewed from above. The Nordic city of Oslo has the greatest share of green space at 72 percent, followed by the Swiss city of Bern (53 percent) and the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana (50 percent).

Paris falls far below the European average, with only 20 percent of the city under tree cover. The French capital ranks behind Madrid (39 percent) and Rome (24 percent). Greenery is even rarer in Athens, where trees cover only a tenth of the urban surface, while the Cypriot capital of Nicosia closes the ranking of the selected cities, with a rate of only 4 percent.

Green spaces in urban areas are vital. European cities have the greatest tree cover when viewed from above.

Green spaces in urban areas are vital. Image: Statista

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What is the World Economic Forum doing about nature?

Biodiversity loss and climate change are occurring at unprecedented rates, threatening humanity’s very survival. Nature is in crisis, but there is hope. Investing in nature can not only increase our resilience to socioeconomic and environmental shocks, but it can help societies thrive.

There is strong recognition within the Forum that the future must be net-zero and nature-positive. The Nature Action Agenda initiative, within the Centre for Nature and Climate, is an inclusive, multistakeholder movement catalysing economic action to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.

The Nature Action Agenda is enabling business and policy action by:

Building a knowledge base to make a compelling economic and business case for safeguarding nature, showcasing solutions and bolstering research through the publication of the New Nature Economy Reports and impactful communications.

Catalysing leadership for nature-positive transitions through multi-stakeholder communities such as Champions for Nature that takes a leading role in shaping the net-zero, nature-positive agenda on the global stage.

Scaling up solutions in priority socio-economic systems through BiodiverCities by 2030, turning cities into engines of nature-positive development; Financing for Nature, unlocking financial resources through innovative mechanisms such as high-integrity Biodiversity Credits Market; and Sector Transitions to Nature Positive, accelerating sector-specific priority actions to reduce impacts and unlock opportunities.

Supporting an enabling environment by ensuring implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and mobilizing business voices calling for ambitious policy actions in collaboration with Business for Nature.

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