World Air Quality Report - 2022

The 2022 World Air Quality Report reviews the status of air quality around the world for the year 2022. This report presents PM2.5 air quality data from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions, and territories. The data used in this report was aggregated from over 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost air quality sensors. These monitoring stations and sensors are operated by governmental bodies, research institutions, non-profit non-governmental organizations, universities and educational facilities, private companies, and citizen scientists across the globe.

Only 13 of the world’s countries and territories had “healthy” air quality last year, according to a new report, as air pollution surged to alarming levels in 2022.

This company  tracks air quality worldwide, found that average annual air pollution in roughly 90% of the countries and territories analyzed exceeded the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, which are designed to help governments craft regulations to protect public health.

IQAir analyzed average air quality from 131 countries and territories, and found that just six countries — Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand — and seven territories in the Pacific and Caribbean, including Guam and Puerto Rico, met the WHO air quality guidelines, which call for an average air pollution level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter or less.

Seven countries – Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Kuwait and India – had poor air quality that far exceeded the WHO guidelines with average air pollution over 50 micrograms per cubic meter.

WHO tightened its annual air pollution guidelines in September 2021, cutting the acceptable amount of fine particulate matter from 10 to 5 micrograms per cubic meter.

Millions of people die each year from air pollution-related health issues. In 2016, around 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particulate matter, according to the UN agency. If the latest guidelines had been applied back then, WHO found there could have been nearly 3.3 million fewer pollution-related deaths.

Top 10 countries with the world's worst air pollution.

In the United States, the report found air pollution improved significantly last year compared with 2021 due to a relatively mild wildfire season.

Major US cities with the worst air quality

Around the world, researchers said, the main sources of air pollution last year were wildfires and the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy production, which wreaks havoc on the most vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Source: www.iqair.com

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