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 to16 Feb 2025 That day's board

The worst cities in Australia for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 16 Feb 2025: Gladstone 6.2 µg/m³, Tuggeranong 5.9 µg/m³ and Mackay 5.9 µg/m³.

  1. 1GladstoneQueensland6.2
  2. 2TuggeranongAustralian Capital Territory5.9
  3. 3MackayQueensland5.9
  4. 4CanberraAustralian Capital Territory5.8
  5. 5NarangbaQueensland5.6
  6. 6Logan CityQueensland5.6
  7. 7MaryboroughQueensland5.5
  8. 8CoomeraQueensland5.5
  9. 9ToowoombaQueensland5.4
  10. 10BrisbaneQueensland5.4
  11. 11Mango HillQueensland5.4
  12. 12Tannum SandsQueensland5.4
  13. 13Sunshine CoastQueensland5.4
  14. 14Gold CoastQueensland5.1
  15. 15MoranbahQueensland4.6
  16. 16BlackwaterQueensland4.3
  17. 17Mount IsaQueensland4.1
  18. 18EmeraldQueensland4.1
  19. 19CairnsQueensland3.9
  20. 20TownsvilleQueensland3.8

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Ayr since 15 Feb 2025, Sydney since 20 Jan 2025, Swan Hill since 18 Jan 2025 and 13 more cities.

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.