Riga has been identified as having the worst public toilets in Europe, according to findings by experts from the British company Showers to You. The analysis, based on over 8,000 Google reviews of public toilets in European cities, compared the quantity of negative and positive comments.
The Latvian capital claimed the top spot in the negative ranking, with an overall cleanliness score of 3.44 out of 10. Approximately one in five reviews for toilets in Riga were negative.
Following Riga, Madrid (Spain) secured the second spot in the unfavorable ranking, with Valletta (Malta) coming in third.
On the positive side, the best-rated toilets were found in Bucharest, where restroom facilities received a score of 8.7.
European cities with the worst public toilets:
Riga (Latvia)
Madrid (Spain)
Valletta (Malta)
Stockholm (Sweden)
Warsaw (Poland)
Vienna (Austria)
Lisbon (Portugal)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Rome (Italy)
“Rīga is the European city with the worst public toilets, with a cleanliness score of 3.44 out of 10. Almost one in five of Rīga’s public toilet reviews include words synonymous with ‘dirty’ (18.75%), which is 7.43 percentage points more than Stockholm, Sweden, where one in 9 reviews contained ‘dirty’ words. The public toilets in Riga have an average rating of 3.36 out of 5, almost the same rating as in London (3.35), despite the UK city having a far higher population size,” said Showers to You, providing a comparison with the bustling public conveniences of old London town.
Madrid, Spain’s public toilets rank second, with a cleanliness score of 4.23. “Spain is known for high standards of hygiene, with bidets prevalent in Spanish households and can even be found in some public restrooms, which renders Madrid’s low rating in the cleanliness index surprising,” commented the survey authors.
This rating was compiled ahead of World Toilet Day on November 19.
