A new report released by the European Environment Agency has revealed the startling number of premature deaths caused by air pollution in Europe. Looking at the cases attributable to the most common killer, particulate matter (PM), there were a total of 422,000 across the EU28 countries in 2015. This infographic shows the countries with the most PM-related premature deaths.

Germany is the EU’s most populous country so it is probably unsurprising that the most deaths occurred there – 62,300. This accounts for 0.08 per cent of the total population. Of the countries with the most deaths, Bulgaria’s population was the most severely affected – here, 0.20 per cent of the population died prematurely due to PM in 2015.

source: statista