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Provision and access to green space are associated with positive health and wellbeing benefits. In urban areas, green space can effectively help to reduce exposure to environmental factors, like air pollution and heat.

This indicator tracks the population-weighted greenness by using normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI).

Interpretation of results

 In Europe the population weighted NDVI increased by 3.3% in 2024, compared to 2000. However, it is unclear whether the increase is attributable to actual increase in greenness exposure or population change.

Caveats

NDVI is a common way to measure how green an area is, but it only gives a rough estimate and can be affected by the surrounding environment. How well it reflects the actual green space people experience can vary depending on the type of land and vegetation.In addition, population data is not available for all years, so different data sources have to be used, which can introduce some inaccuracies. Because of these limitations, the results should be interpreted with caution.

In Europe the population weighted NDVI increased by 3.3% in 2024, compared to 2000. However, it is unclear whether the increase is attributable to actual increase in greenness exposure or population change.

Date of publication:

2026

Keywords:
Green infrastructure, Green space, Urban greening
Climate impacts:

Non specific

Adaptation Approaches:

Nature-based solutions

Sectors:

Health, Urban

Geographic characterisation:

Europe

Reference information

Websites:
https://lancetcountdown.org/europe/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(26)00025-3/fulltext
Source:

Publication:

Kriit H, Chen-Xu J, Semenza J et al., 2026, 'The 2026 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: narrowing window for decisive health action'. The Lancet Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(26)00025-3

Data sources:

  1. Eurostat, population and deprivation data
  2. NDVI data: Didan K. MOD13Q1 MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V006. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. USGS, 5, 2002–2015.; 2015.
Contributor:
Lancet Countdown in Europe

Published in Climate-ADAPT: Sep 4, 2026

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This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.

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This translation is generated by eTranslation, a machine translation tool provided by the European Commission.