According to Barcelona’s Air Quality Assessment Report, 26% of primary schools would have met the European legal limit for NO2 due to come into force in 2030 by 2025, and all of them fall within the limits set by the current legal threshold, significant findings, given that children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of pollution and spend many hours at school.

The sharp fall in NO2 concentrations throughout the city has also been felt outside schools, with levels down by 40% between 2018 and 2025.

At city level, the positive trend continues, with a progressive decline in the main pollutants (NO2, PM10 and PM2.5) reaching historic lows once again. Monitoring stations further from traffic are also beginning to record annual levels that would meet the European legal limits set for 2030.

Impact on health

The improvement in air quality in recent years has also considerably reduced its estimated negative impact on health in 2025.

As a result, there has been a reduction in:

• new cases of childhood asthma (25%)
• lung cancer diagnoses (22%)
• deaths attributable to chronic exposure to pollution (15%)

Despite this progress, pollution levels remain above the health-protection guideline values set by the World Health Organization (WHO). To sustain this positive trend and further protect residents’ health, the report sets out a number of recommendations, including the need to reduce motorised mobility and boost public transport use, promote working from home and optimise urban design through measures that limit private vehicle use, particularly in the most polluted areas.