Data source: Environmental Performance Index
The Environmental Performance Index provides a ranking that shines light on how each country manages environmental issues. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems. Within these two policy objectives the EPI scores country performance in 11 issue areas comprised of 32 indicators. Indicators in the EPI measure how close countries are to meeting internationally established targets or, in the absence of agreed-upon targets, how they compare to the range of observed countries.
Note: In many cases the EPI variables lack actual observations and rely on imputation. Please refer to the original documentation on more information about this. Also, some values (usually the value 0) are very unlikely, please use your judgement whether to treat these as the value 0 or as ``Data missing''.
The values on the EPI, Policy Objectives, and Issue Categories are not comparable over time, therefore, this compilation only includes data on these variables from the latest release. The raw data on the 32 indicators, however, are comparable over time and, therefore, time-series are included.
When using this dataset, please cite as:
(Block et al., 2022)
Browse variables and select them for download.
epi_agr
Agriculture Issue Category consists of the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index, which measures the Euclidean distance from an ideal point with optimal nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and crop yield. T ...
epi_air
Air Quality Issue Category consists of three indicators: 1) Household air pollution (HAP), measured with the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost per 100,000 per ...
epi_ape
Pollution Emissions Issue Category consists of 2 indicators: 1) The SO2 growth rate, calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in SO2 over the years 2005-2014. It is then adjus ...
epi_bca
The black carbon growth rate, which makes up 5% of the Climate Change Issue Category, is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in black carbon over the years 2005-2014. It is t ...
epi_bdh
Biodiversity and Habitat Issue Category consists of 7 indicators: 1) The terrestrial biome protection (national weights) indicator. It is calculated by first taking proportions of the area of each ...
epi_bhv
Biodiversity Habitat Index (BHI) estimates the effects of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation on the expected retention of terrestrial biodiversity. Original source: Commonwealth Scientif ...
epi_cch
Climate Change Issue Category consists of 8 indicators: 1) The CO2 growth rate, calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in raw carbon dioxide emissions over the years 2008-20 ...
epi_cda
The CO2 (carbon dioxide) growth rate, which makes up 55% of the Climate Change Issue Category, is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in raw carbon dioxide emissions over the ...
epi_cha
The CH4 (methane) growth rate, which makes up 15% of the Climate Change Issue Category, is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in raw methane emissions over the years 2008-20 ...
epi_ecs
Ecosystem Services Issue Category consists of 3 indicators: 1) Tree cover loss, measured as a five-year moving average of the percentage of forest lost from the extent of forest cover in the refer ...
epi_eh
Environmental Health Policy Objective measures how well countries are protecting their populations from environmental health risks. It comprises 40% of the total EPI score and consists of 4 issue cate ...
epi_epi
The 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) scores 180 countries on 32 performance indicators across 11 issue categories related to environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The 2020 EPI is a co ...
epi_ev
Ecosystem Vitality Policy Objective measures how well countries are preserving, protecting, and enhancing ecosystems and the services they provide. It comprises 60% of the total EPI score and consists ...
epi_fct
Fish caught by trawling measures the percentage of a country's fish caught by bottom or pelagic trawling, where a fishing net is pulled through the water behind a boat. This practice is indiscriminate ...
epi_fga
The F-gas growth rate, which makes up 10% of the Climate Change Issue Category, is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in raw fluorinated gas emissions over the years 2008-20 ...
epi_for
The Forests issue category (previously called "Ecosystem Services") measures trends in area and integrity of countries' forests. It includes five indicators: loss of humid tropical primary forests, lo ...
epi_fsh
Fisheries Issue Category consists of 3 indicators: 1) Fish stock status, measured as the percentage of a country's total catch that comes from overexploited or collapsed stocks, considering all fi ...
epi_fss
Fish stock status measures the percentage of a country's total catch that comes from overexploited or collapsed stocks, considering all fish stocks within a country's EEZs. Because continued and incre ...
epi_ghp
EPI calculates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita for each country in the year 2017. The variable is log-transformed. The unit of measurement is gigagrams (Gg) of CO2-equivalent per person. ...
epi_gib
The greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity growth rate indicator serves as a signal of countries' progress in decoupling emissions from economic growth. EPI calculates an annual average growth rate in GHG emi ...
epi_grl
Grassland loss is measured using a five-year moving average of percentage of gross losses in grassland areas compared to the 1992 reference year. The variable is log-transformed according to the formu ...
epi_h2o
Sanitation and Drinking Water Issue Category consists of two indicators: 1) Unsafe sanitation, measured as the proportion of a country's population exposed to health risks from their access to san ...
epi_had
EPI measures household solid fuels using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to household air pollution (HAP) from the us ...
epi_hmt
Heavy Metals Issue Category consists of the indicator Lead Exposure, which measures the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost per 100,000 persons due to this risk. It ...
epi_lcb
This indicator measures CO2 emissions from land cover change and is calculated over the years 2001-2015. The unit of measurement is proportion. Original source: Mullion Group. When using this ...
epi_mpa
Marine protected areas indicator is measured as the percentage of a country's total exclusive economic zone (EEZ) designated as marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs represent a critical tool for protec ...
epi_msw
Controlled solid waste refers to the proportion of household and commercial waste generated in a country that is collected and treated in a manner that controls environmental risks. This metric counts ...
epi_mti
Marine Trophic Index (MTI) measures the health of a country's fishing stock based on expected catch and changes over time. The MTI measures the degree to which a country is depleting species at higher ...
epi_noa
The N2O growth rate, which makes up 5% of the Climate Change issue category, is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in raw nitrous oxide emissions over the years 2008-2017. I ...
epi_nxa
The NOX growth rate is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in NOX over the years 2005-2014. It is then adjusted for economic trends to isolate change due to policy rather tha ...
epi_ozd
EPI measures ozone exposure using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to ground-level ozone pollution. The variable is lo ...
epi_par
The PARI indicator measures ecological representativeness as the proportion of biologically scaled environmental diversity included in a country's terrestrial protected areas. The measure relies on re ...
epi_pbd
EPI measures lead exposure using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to lead contamination in the environment. The variable is log-tr ...
epi_pmd
Ambient particulate matter pollution measured with the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to fine air particulate matter sma ...
epi_sda
The SO2 growth rate is calculated as the average annual rate of increase or decrease in SO2 over the years 2005-2014. It is then adjusted for economic trends to isolate change due to policy rather tha ...
epi_shi
Species Habitat Index (SHI) estimates potential population losses, as well as regional and global extinction risks of individual species, using habitat loss as a proxy. The SHI indicator measures the ...
epi_snm
The Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index (SNMI) seeks to balance efficient application of nitrogen fertilizer with maximum crop yields as a measure of the environmental performance of agricultural pr ...
epi_spi
Species Protection Index (SPI) evaluates the species-level ecological representativeness of each country's protected area network. The SPI metric uses remote sensing data, global biodiversity informat ...
epi_tbg
EPI derives the terrestrial biome protection indicators by first calculating the proportions of the area of each of a country's biome types that are covered by protected areas and then constructing a ...
epi_tbn
EPI derives the terrestrial biome protection indicators by first calculating the proportions of the area of each of a country's biome types that are covered by protected areas and then constructing a ...
epi_tcl
EPI quantifies tree cover loss by constructing a five-year moving average of the percentage of forest lost from the extent of forest cover in the reference year 2000. A forest is defined as any land a ...
epi_usd
EPI measures unsafe sanitation using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to their exposure to inadequate sanitation facilities. The v ...
epi_uwd
EPI measures unsafe drinking water using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100,000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to unsafe drinking water. The variable is lo ...
epi_wmg
Waste Management Issue Category consists of the indicator Controlled Solid Waste, which refers to the proportion of household and commercial waste generated in a country that is collected and treated ...
epi_wrs
Water Resources Issue Category consists of the indicator Wastewater Treatment, which measures the percentage of wastewater that undergoes at least primary treatment, normalized by the proportion of th ...
epi_wtl
Wetland loss is quantified using a five-year moving average of percentage of gross losses in wetland areas compared to the 1992 reference year. The variable is log-transformed according to the formula ...
epi_wwt
The percentage of wastewater that undergoes at least primary treatment in each country, normalized by the proportion of the population connected to a municipal wastewater collection system. Origin ...