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 to20 Mar 2024 That day's board

The worst cities in United Kingdom for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 20 Mar 2024: Birmingham 11.6 µg/m³, Leeds 10.8 µg/m³ and Dartford 10.5 µg/m³.

  1. 1BirminghamEngland11.6
  2. 2LeedsEngland10.8
  3. 3DartfordEngland10.5
  4. 4ManchesterEngland10.2
  5. 5GraysEngland9.8
  6. 6Kingston upon HullEngland9.5
  7. 7NorwichEngland9.3
  8. 8LondonEngland9.3
  9. 9BrightonEngland9.3
  10. 10WiganEngland9.2
  11. 11BexleyEngland9.2
  12. 12BarnsleyEngland9.2
  13. 13YorkEngland9.1
  14. 14CardiffWales9.1
  15. 15CanterburyEngland9.0
  16. 16SheffieldEngland8.9
  17. 17HooEngland8.7
  18. 18Canvey IslandEngland8.7
  19. 19Newcastle upon TyneEngland8.6
  20. 20ChesterfieldEngland8.4

+ 39 more cities, 8.3 µg/m³ and below

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Halesworth since 20 Mar 2024, Derry since 5 Mar 2024, Banbridge since 8 Feb 2024 and Nottingham since 6 Feb 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.