SDGs & me: Towards sustainable cities and communities

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11) ‘Sustainable cities and communities’ promotes the renewal and planning of cities and other human settlements while offering opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and green public spaces, while improving resource use and reducing environmental impacts.

Monitoring SDG 11 progress in the EU focuses on progress made in enriching the quality of life in cities and communities, fostering sustainable mobility and improving environmental impacts.

Source datasets: sdg_11_52, sdg_11_40, sdg_11_11, sdg_11_60 

SDG 11 is monitored with a range of indicators. One of them is premature deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter. In 2020, there were 237 810 premature deaths in the EU due to air pollution through fine particulate matter, or 25.9% less than in  2015 (321 112 deaths). 

Another indicator is road traffic deaths. In 2021, 19 917 people died in road traffic in the EU, a decrease of 16.3% from 2016 (23 808 deaths). 

In terms of housing, 4.3% of the EU population had severe housing deprivation in 2020, a decrease of 1 percentage point (pp) since 2015 (5.3%).  

Furthermore, the recycling rate of municipal waste reached 48.7% in 2021, i.e. an increase of 2.8 pp compared with 2016 (45.9%).

Please note that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced some indicators values for the year 2020.

Today marks the beginning of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2023 (#EURegionsWeek), and Eurostat will be present with two events. #EURegionsWeek is an annual four-day event during which cities and regions showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement EU cohesion policy, and prove the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance. 

How is your country doing?

Do you know how much household waste is recycled in your country? Or what is the exposure to air pollution?  

You can easily explore and evaluate the situation of your country with the various visualisation tools in ‘SDGs & me’. 

Select your country in the header and choose one of the indicators of SDG 11: 

Would you like to learn more?

You can find out more about the EU’s progress towards the SDGs with: 

• The publication Sustainable Development in the European Union – Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context – 2023 edition; 
• The visualisation tool - SDG country overview - which compares country-level data with the EU average for each SDG; 
• The recording of the webinar on the EU’s progress, held on 25 May.