SmogRank / History / City race

Cities in United Kingdom, worst air first, day by day

Each measured city's average over the 30 days to every day since January 2023, worst first. Find your own city to follow it through the race, or keep to one country.

CountriesCities
The 30 days to22 Feb 2024 That day's board

The worst cities in United Kingdom for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 22 Feb 2024: Derry 10.7 µg/m³, Plymouth 10.1 µg/m³ and Cardiff 10.0 µg/m³.

  1. 1DerryNorthern Ireland10.7
  2. 2PlymouthEngland10.1
  3. 3CardiffWales10.0
  4. 4ManchesterEngland8.8
  5. 5CwmafanWales8.8
  6. 6Briton FerryWales8.8
  7. 7PortsmouthEngland8.4
  8. 8LeedsEngland8.0
  9. 9BelfastNorthern Ireland8.0
  10. 10SeafordEngland7.8
  11. 11LondonEngland7.6
  12. 12Kingston upon HullEngland7.5
  13. 13GraysEngland7.4
  14. 14DartfordEngland7.3
  15. 15WiganEngland7.2
  16. 16NorwichEngland7.2
  17. 17CanterburyEngland7.2
  18. 18WarringtonEngland7.1
  19. 19SouthamptonEngland7.1
  20. 20NewportWales7.1

+ 41 more cities, the next at 7.1 µg/m³

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Brighton since 14 Feb 2024, Banbridge since 8 Feb 2024, Nottingham since 6 Feb 2024 and Barnstaple since 31 Jan 2024. Days missing from the source archive fall in this window, so fewer countries are counted.

30 days7 days
GoodModerateSensitive groupsUnhealthyVery unhealthyHazardousWHO 24-hour guideline, 15 µg/m³Fades where it stood: not counted that day

A city's number is its average over the 30 days, shown only when 21 of them were measured (5 of 7 on the 7-day race), the same minimum as the 30- and 7-day boards. A city whose monitors go quiet fades out where it stood rather than sliding down, so a gap never reads as cleaner air. Some large countries are thin or missing because their monitors' licences don't allow reuse. How we rank.

Not covered: the government monitoring networks of China and Turkey, which publish only on their own websites. We are building the reader for China's network. Turkey's network doesn't answer requests from outside the country, so we can't read it. Most cities there are missing from this board, not clean. Why.