Only seven countries met World Health Organization (WHO) standards in 2023 for the content of the smallest particles in the air emitted by vehicles and industry (PM2.5). This list includes Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand.
This is stated in a study by the Swiss air quality organization IQAir. The report examined the situation in 134 countries and regions.
Today, the worldʼs air is generally cleaner than it was in the last century, but there are still places where pollution levels are particularly dangerous. This is, for example, Bangladesh, where the PM2.5 norm of the city is exceeded more than 15 times, Pakistan (14 times), India (10 times), Tajikistan and Burkina Faso (9 times).
The report says that all but one of the 100 cities with the worldʼs highest levels of air pollution are located in Asia.
Begusarai, a city of half a million people in the northern Indian state of Bihar, was the worldʼs most polluted city last year, with PM2.5 concentrations 23 times higher than WHO guidelines. Across India, 1.3 billion people, or 96% of the population, live in conditions where air quality is seven times worse than WHO recommendations, according to the report.
If we look at air quality in the capital cities, the worst situation was in New Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Baghdad (Iraq).
The capital cities with the lowest PM2.5 concentrations are mainly located in Oceania, Scandinavia and the Caribbean, and include Wellington (New Zealand), Reykjavik (Iceland) and Hamilton (Bermuda).
According to WHO, air pollution is responsible for the premature death of more than 4 million people worldwide every year.