Analyses reviewed by POLITICO’s Living Cities showed that municipalities in Western Europe — especially in the U.K., Spain and Sweden — received significantly higher scores than comparable cities in Eastern European countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.
Natalie Mueller, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and Pompeu Fabra University, said access to public funds plays a major role in this divide. “If there are financial constraints in cities, investing in sustainable and health-promoting urban forms and infrastructures, and defining environmental policies may be probably less of a priority than tackling other more pressing social and economic issues,” she said.
Mueller also noted lingering cultural differences in environmental consciousness and the link between urban design and health. “Eastern European cities still have a strong car culture, where cars are still status symbols,” she said, adding that in some areas, active mobility options like cycling are frowned upon. “They still strongly cater to car traffic with necessary infrastructure, which leads to poor environmental quality and worse health outcomes.”
By comparison, lower levels of air pollution, greater access to green spaces, and the reduced presence of urban heat islands enabled Europe’s smaller cities, with 50,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, to earn the highest HUDI scores.
Topping the list is Pamplona — a regional capital in Spain that lies in a lush valley at the foot of the Pyrenees and that has used the considerable revenues from its annual “Running of the Bulls” festival to invest in active mobility infrastructure.
Madrid makes good
Earning the highest score among Europe’s urban areas with more than 1.5 million inhabitants was Madrid, another Spanish city. Like other big cities it ranked well on sustainable transport and housing density.
