Only 55% of Romanians are connected to a sewer network with secondary water treatment; the EU average is 81%
Romania has narrowed the gap over the last ten years, but remains among the three weakest member states, 25 percentage points behind the Union average.
The ROptimizaRE editorial team · 5 min read · updated 15 October 2026
In short
- In 2024, 55.45% of Romania's population was connected to a sewer network with at least secondary wastewater treatment, compared with an EU average of about 81%[1]
- Romania rose from 36.1% in 2013 to 55.45% in 2024, real progress, but the absolute gap from the average narrowed only marginally[1]
- For 2022 (the most recent year with complete data for all states), Romania ranks third from the bottom in the EU, ahead of only Croatia and Malta[1]
- Eurostat notes that, structurally, a rate of 100% is not realistic anywhere: the cost of connection can be disproportionately high in rural areas with low population density[1]
Real progress, but not enough
The Eurostat indicator “population connected to a wastewater treatment plant with at least secondary treatment” measures, in practice, how many of a country's inhabitants have their wastewater properly treated before it returns to the environment, not just connected to any sewer. Romania has recorded steady progress over the last decade, but started from a very low base[1].
Population connected to sewers with secondary treatment, Romania, 2024
55.5%
Year 2024 · source[1]
Progress from 36.1% in 2013: almost 20 percentage points in 11 years.
EU27 average, 2023
80.7%
Year 2023 · source[1]
Romania in 2024 is still below the EU average of 2013 (77.3%).
Population connected to sewers with secondary treatment, 2022[1]
2022
Romania: rank 5 of 7 (1 = the highest value)
View the data as a table
| Country | Value |
|---|---|
| Netherlands | 99.7% |
| EU average | 80.8% |
| France | 79.6% |
| Poland | 75.7% |
| Bulgaria | 67% |
| Romania | 53.9% |
| Malta | 51.5% |
| Croatia | 33.1% |
For 2022, the most recent year with data reported by all member states, Romania ranks third from the bottom in the EU, ahead of only Croatia (33.1%) and Malta (51.47%). Countries with a GDP per capita close to Romania's, such as Poland (75.68%) or Bulgaria (67.03%), have significantly higher connection rates[1].
Sources
Primary official sources; where we use the press (only when the official document is not public) we mark it. The links lead to the original document or to the report cited (titles are translated; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated).
- [1]
Eurostat — Population connected to at least secondary wastewater treatment (sdg_06_20) (data extracted from the official Eurostat API (dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/sdg_06_20); 2013–2024 series for Romania and the EU27, plus a 2022 ranking of all member states)
Published 3 July 2026 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)
This is a translation of the Romanian article, which prevails. Source titles are translated for convenience; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated.