SmogRank / World / Germany / North Rhine-Westphalia / March 2023

Most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, March 2023

27 cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ranked by their average PM2.5 over the 31 days. Worst: Krefeld at 11.2 µg/m³, #188 of 867 cities in the world. Cleanest: Netphen at 4.6. A city needs measurements on 70% of the days to be ranked.

OpenAQ's archive, where our readings come from, has almost none for 20 of these 31 days. Cities in the United States and Europe have them from the EPA's and the European Environment Agency's own records of the same monitors; many cities elsewhere are missing from this board, not clean. Why.

About 0 people in these 5 cities breathed unhealthy air on an average day of March 2023.

Ranked by people: each city's population times its share of unhealthy days, those with a daily mean over 35.4 µg/m³ (US AQI 101+). That is how many people living there breathed unhealthy air on an average day. Only cities measured at 2 or more places at least 3 km apart are ranked: one monitor shouldn't speak for a whole city. Population is the city itself, not its wider metro area.

← Duisburg 0 0.750
Every city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ranked for March 2023 with monitors in two or more places, one column each, ranked by people breathing unhealthy air: height is people on an average day, colour its average. Point at it to read a city; tap to open it.
  1. 1Duisburg
    0
  2. 2Essen
    0
  3. 3Düsseldorf
    0
  4. 4Köln
    0
  5. 5Wuppertal
    0
Good0–50
Moderate51–100
Sensitive groups101–150
Unhealthy151–200
Very unhealthy201–300
Hazardous301+

The US EPA's Air Quality Index for PM2.5 (2024 breakpoints). Show values as: µg/m³ · US AQI · India AQI · China AQI · European AQI · UK DAQI · Canada AQHI+. About the scales

All cities in the world, March 2023 · All cities in Germany, March 2023 · North Rhine-Westphalia now

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SmogRank, most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, PM2.5, March 2023, smogrank.com/de/region/north-rhine-westphalia/history/2023-03 (accessed 6 Oct 2026).

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You're welcome to reuse a single chart, image or figure with this citation and a link. Terms. Raw monitor readings in bulk are published by OpenAQ, under each provider's licence.