IQAir produced a World Air Quality Report in 2020 that reviewed the world’s cities and discovered the amount of polluting particles (known as PM2.5) in the air.
HouseFresh made its own analysis, using a modified version of their categorisation system for how ‘healthy’ the levels of PM2.5 concentration in the air were. This is because IQAir‘s categorisation is based on the WHO‘s healthy air targets for 2020. However on the 22nd September 2021 the WHO halved the target for the amount of PM2.5 concentration in µg/m³ found in the air. Their research has shown that these particles are twice as hazardous to health as previously thought and our categories reflect this new target.
According to the HouseFresh latest data on air quality, it was revealed that Baia Mare is the best for clean air in Romania, whilst Calafat is the worst.
Key Findings
- Bangladesh takes the top spot as the most polluted country, followed by Pakistan, India, and Mongolia.
- 49 of the 50 most polluted cities worldwide were in Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, and India.
- Japanese city Obihiro was Asia’s top city for clean air with a PM2.5 of 5.6µg/m3.
- Judbury (Australia), Kailua Kona (U.S.A.), and Muonio (Finland) were the cities with the cleanest air.
- Susanville in wildfire-ravaged California had the dirtiest air in America with a PM2.5 of 26.2µg/m3.
The top three cities in the world with the best air were Judbury (Australia) with a PM2.5 of 2.4µg/m3, Kailua Kona (U.S.) with a PM2.5 of 2.6µg/m3 followed by Muonio (Finland) with a PM2.5 of 2.8µg/m3. Not surprisingly, Judbury is a rural Tasmanian region with a population size of only 392. Likewise, Muonio is only home to 2,308 people. Kailua Kona in Hawaii is the largest of the three, with a population of 11,975.
Natural disasters impact air quality levels significantly. Hotan (Xinjiang, China) was the most polluted city in the world in 2020 with a PM2.5 of 110.2µg/m3, a finding that has largely been attributed to local sandstorms, given its location at the southwestern edge of Taklimakan Desert, the world’s largest shifting sand desert. Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh, India) is the second most polluted city in the world with a PM2.5 of 106.6µg/m3. Colloquially known as the gateway to its home state, massive traffic volumes were likely the cause of the high levels of air pollution.
Manikganj (Bangladesh) lies in third place, with a PM2.5 of 80.2µg/m3. As one of the fastest developing countries around the world, with its industrial sector growing at a rate of 13% per year, vehicles and industrial emissions are the major contributors to air pollution in this country of 165 million people.
7 million people die prematurely each year from air pollution, with 600,000 of these being children. Poor air quality is linked to respiratory illnesses, leukemia, heart disease, strokes, and breast cancer.