SmogRank / History / City race

Cities in Australia, 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 to20 Mar 2024 That day's board

The worst cities in Australia for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 20 Mar 2024: Mackay 6.1 µg/m³, Gladstone 5.8 µg/m³ and Sydney 5.7 µg/m³.

  1. 1MackayQueensland6.1
  2. 2GladstoneQueensland5.8
  3. 3SydneyNew South Wales5.7
  4. 4NarangbaQueensland5.7
  5. 5BrisbaneQueensland5.7
  6. 6MoranbahQueensland5.6
  7. 7Mango HillQueensland5.6
  8. 8Sunshine CoastQueensland5.6
  9. 9ToowoombaQueensland5.5
  10. 10MaryboroughQueensland5.5
  11. 11Tannum SandsQueensland5.5
  12. 12CoomeraQueensland5.5
  13. 13BlackwaterQueensland5.4
  14. 14Logan CityQueensland5.4
  15. 15EmeraldQueensland5.3
  16. 16TownsvilleQueensland4.9
  17. 17Gold CoastQueensland4.9
  18. 18CairnsQueensland4.1
  19. 19AyrQueensland4.1
  20. 20Mount IsaQueensland3.5

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Tuggeranong since 21 Feb 2024, Canberra since 21 Feb 2024 and Adelaide since 22 Jan 2024.

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 readers for them. Most cities there are missing from this board, not clean. Why.