This dataset corresponds to a study aimed at assessing the feasibility of daytime radiative cooling (DRC) as a solution for meeting the cooling demands of buildings in Europe, emphasizing the importance of quantifying the potential. Each of the files of the data set contains the data used to generate the corresponding figures (figures 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) in the paper "Exploring the suitability of radiative cooling: Comparing daytime cooling production with cooling demand in buildings − An European perspective". The data set associated to Figure 1b has values of the daytime radiative cooling energy potential across Europe during the summer months of June, July, and August. The second data set is associated to Figures 2 and 3 of the paper. It contains values for the cooling demand in buildings for 20 different cities in Europe, together with values of the European Cooling Index developed in a previous paper of Werner et al (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.11.028) and values of a new ECI index developed by the authors with avalilable cooling degree days (CDD) data. The data set associated to Figure 4 contains geospaced values of the Cooling demand in Europe during the summer months (June, July, and August). The data set corresponding to Figure 5 has geospaced values of the number of floors for which cooling demand can be potentially covered with daytime radiative cooling. Finally, the last data set corresponds to values of: the number of floors the cooling demand of which can be covered by RC in the main cities in Spain, the average number of floors in a building and the Cooling Coverage Percentage (CCP).