SmogRank / World / Germany / North Rhine-Westphalia / January 2024

Most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, January 2024

31 cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ranked by their average PM2.5 over the 31 days. Worst: Krefeld at 14.6 µg/m³, #490 of 2,341 cities in the world. Cleanest: Netphen at 5.2. A city needs measurements on 70% of the days to be ranked.

About 53K people in these 5 cities breathed unhealthy air on an average day of January 2024.

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.

← Köln 33.1K 30K0
Every city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ranked for January 2024 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. 1Köln
    33.1K
  2. 2Düsseldorf
    20K
  3. 3Duisburg
    0
  4. 4Wuppertal
    0
  5. 5Essen
    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, January 2024 · All cities in Germany, January 2024 · North Rhine-Westphalia now

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SmogRank, most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, PM2.5, January 2024, smogrank.com/de/region/north-rhine-westphalia/history/2024-01 (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.