Metric permalink
Bathing water quality
Part of the Environment and Climate domain. Share of designated bathing waters classified Excellent or Good, a tangible measure of water-environment quality.
Latest data
Latest reading
2025
A lower reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 60% weight
Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.
Trend · 30% weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · 10% weight
23Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
Bathing water quality classifications
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- Environment Agency
- Series ID
- ea_bathing_water
- Frequency
- Annual
- Accessed
- 7 July 2026
Known weakness
England; the current four-class system began in 2015 (no comparable earlier data), the 2020 season was cancelled for COVID, and the 2024 fall partly reflects 27 newly designated, often-poorer river sites.
Notes
Verified official value from Environment Agency (ea_bathing_water), accessed 2026-07-07.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 89.5 | |
| 2016 | 92.8 | |
| 2017 | 91.6 | |
| 2018 | 91.9 | |
| 2019 | 93.1 | |
| 2021 | 94.3 | |
| 2022 | 92.4 | |
| 2023 | 89.6 | |
| 2024 | 85 | |
| 2025 | 87.3 |