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 to15 Mar 2025 That day's board

The worst cities in Australia for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 15 Mar 2025: Mackay 5.9 µg/m³, Blackwater 5.7 µg/m³ and Gladstone 5.4 µg/m³.

  1. 1MackayQueensland5.9
  2. 2BlackwaterQueensland5.7
  3. 3GladstoneQueensland5.4
  4. 4CanberraAustralian Capital Territory5.4
  5. 5Sunshine CoastQueensland5.3
  6. 6Gold CoastQueensland5.2
  7. 7CoomeraQueensland5.2
  8. 8MoranbahQueensland5.0
  9. 9TownsvilleQueensland4.9
  10. 10NarangbaQueensland4.9
  11. 11Mount IsaQueensland4.8
  12. 12TuggeranongAustralian Capital Territory4.8
  13. 13CairnsQueensland4.8
  14. 14Mango HillQueensland4.8
  15. 15MaryboroughQueensland4.6
  16. 16Tannum SandsQueensland4.6
  17. 17Logan CityQueensland4.5
  18. 18EmeraldQueensland4.4
  19. 19BrisbaneQueensland4.2
  20. 20SydneyNew South Wales3.8

+ 1 more city, at 3.3 µg/m³

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Ayr since 15 Feb 2025, Swan Hill since 18 Jan 2025, Stawell since 18 Jan 2025 and 12 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.