SmogRank / World / Germany / North Rhine-Westphalia / 2026
Most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 2026
34 cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ranked by their average PM2.5 so far (278 of 365 days); 34 above the WHO annual guideline (5.0 µg/m³). Worst: Unna at 12.9 µg/m³, #670 of 2,745 cities in the world. Cleanest: Roetgen at 5.9. A city needs measurements on 70% of the days to be ranked.
About 31.1K people in these 6 cities breathed unhealthy air on an average day of 2026.
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.
Low-cost sensors: consumer units, counted only in cities with no government-grade monitor; they read close to reference monitors on the whole, but 15 to 25% high in humid air. How we use them.
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
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SmogRank, most polluted cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, PM2.5, 2026 (so far), smogrank.com/de/region/north-rhine-westphalia/history/2026 (accessed 6 Oct 2026).
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.