SmogRank / Rankings

622 cities by people breathing unhealthy air, this year

Every city with enough measurements in this window, worst first.

CPCB in India: no readings since 12 Oct (488 monitors). EEA in Spain: no readings since 13 Oct (310 monitors). Their cities show older figures or are missing from this board, not clean.

About 106M people in these 622 cities breathed unhealthy air on an average day so far this year.

Ranked by people: each city's population times its share of unhealthy days, those with a daily mean over 35.4 µg/m³ (US AQI 101+). That is how many people living there breathed unhealthy air on an average day. Only cities measured at 2 or more places at least 3 km apart are ranked: one monitor shouldn't speak for a whole city. Population is the city itself, not its wider metro area.

  1. 101Ansan-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 59.3K
  2. 102PoznańGreater Poland, Poland 58.1K
  3. 103TalcaMaule Region, Chile 57.7K
  4. 104CheonanChungcheongnam-do, South Korea 56.1K
  5. 105BogotáBogota D.C., Colombia 54.8K
  6. 106AshaimanGreater Accra, Ghana 51.1K
  7. 107TorontoOntario, Canada 48.9K
  8. 108Anyang-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 48.1K
  9. 109MzuzuNorthern Region, Malawi 47K
  10. 110UlsanUlsan, South Korea 46.7K
  11. 111Bucharestlast full day 10 OctBucharest, Romania 46.6K
  12. 112SkopjeGrad Skopje, North Macedonia 46.5K
  13. 113PyeongtaekGyeonggi-do, South Korea 45.1K
  14. 114SejongSejong-si, South Korea 44.8K
  15. 115DakarDakar, Senegal 43.6K
  16. 116São PauloSão Paulo, Brazil 43.4K
  17. 117PueblaPuebla, Mexico 41.6K
  18. 118Mueang NonthaburiNonthaburi, Thailand 40.7K
  19. 119ŁódźŁódź Voivodeship, Poland 40.3K
  20. 120San Pedro SulaCortés Department, Honduras 38.3K
  21. 121DebrecenHajdú-Bihar, Hungary 37.5K
  22. 122ChicagoIllinois, United States 37.3K
  23. 123PraguePrague, Czechia 36.7K
  24. 124CalgaryAlberta, Canada 36.6K
  25. 125ViennaVienna, Austria 35.5K
  26. 126TalcahuanoBiobio, Chile 34.3K
  27. 127BeirutBeirut, Lebanon 33.6K
  28. 128TainanTaiwan, Taiwan 33K
  29. 129IksanJeollabuk-do, South Korea 32.9K
  30. 130MexicaliBaja California, Mexico 32.8K
  31. 131GdańskPomerania, Poland 32.4K
  32. 132JeonjuJeollabuk-do, South Korea 32.2K
  33. 133Uijeongbu-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 32.1K
  34. 134Santa Anita - Los FicusLima region, Peru 32K
  35. 135Los ÁngelesBiobio, Chile 31.6K
  36. 136LondonEngland, United Kingdom 31.3K
  37. 137Viña del MarValparaiso, Chile 30.9K
  38. 138CoronelBiobio, Chile 27.7K
  39. 139GumiGyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea 27.4K
  40. 140TemaGreater Accra, Ghana 27K
  41. 141GunsanJeollabuk-do, South Korea 27K
  42. 142MasanGwangju, South Korea 27K
  43. 143Munichlast full day 11 OctBavaria, Germany 26.8K
  44. 144Ciudad JuárezChihuahua, Mexico 26.4K
  45. 145SzczecinWest Pomerania, Poland 26.3K
  46. 146WŏnjuGangwon-do, South Korea 26.1K
  47. 147ChangwonGyeongsangnam-do, South Korea 25.3K
  48. 148Duque de CaxiasRio de Janeiro, Brazil 24.5K
  49. 149OsanGyeonggi-do, South Korea 23.5K
  50. 150KeonjhargarhOdisha, India 22.1K
  51. 151Chiang MaiChiang Mai, Thailand 20.4K
  52. 152Nong KhaemBangkok, Thailand 19.8K
  53. 153León de los AldamaGuanajuato, Mexico 19.7K
  54. 154ToruńKujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland 19.4K
  55. 155BiałystokPodlasie, Poland 18.6K
  56. 156Gimpo-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 18.6K
  57. 157BareillyUttar Pradesh, India 18.3K
  58. 158Sai MaiBangkok, Thailand 18.2K
  59. 159HanamGyeonggi-do, South Korea 17.9K
  60. 160EdmontonAlberta, Canada 17.7K
  61. 161ChungjuNorth Chungcheong, South Korea 17.3K
  62. 162Icheon-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 17.2K
  63. 163Gyeongsan-siGyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea 16.8K
  64. 164KimhaeGyeongsangnam-do, South Korea 16.7K
  65. 165PhiladelphiaPennsylvania, United States 16.5K
  66. 166Guri-siGyeonggi-do, South Korea 16.4K
  67. 167BratislavaBratislava Region, Slovakia 16.3K
  68. 168ParisÎle-de-France, France 15K
  69. 169ChinjuGyeongsangnam-do, South Korea 14.6K
  70. 170KaunasKaunas, Lithuania 13.5K
  71. 171Iaşilast full day 10 OctIași County, Romania 13.4K
  72. 172ChuncheonGangwon-do, South Korea 13.3K
  73. 173MadridMadrid, Spain 12.8K
  74. 174Santiago de Querétarolast full day 11 OctQuerétaro, Mexico 12.5K
  75. 175AsanChungcheongnam-do, South Korea 12.4K
  76. 176JeongeupJeollabuk-do, South Korea 12.3K
  77. 177Cluj-Napocalast full day 10 OctCluj County, Romania 12.2K
  78. 178YangjuGyeonggi-do, South Korea 12K
  79. 179BakersfieldCalifornia, United States 11.8K
  80. 180Frankfurt am MainHesse, Germany 11.4K
  81. 181FresnoCalifornia, United States 11.4K
  82. 182PortoPorto, Portugal 11.4K
  83. 183BrnoSouth Moravian, Czechia 11.3K
  84. 184TalgharAlmaty Region, Kazakhstan 11.2K
  85. 185Lak SiBangkok, Thailand 11.1K
  86. 186GimcheonGyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea 10.2K
  87. 187YeojuGyeonggi-do, South Korea 10.1K
  88. 188Ban Khlong PrawetBangkok, Thailand 9.96K
  89. 189Timişoaralast full day 10 OctTimiș County, Romania 9.82K
  90. 190MokpoJeollanam-do, South Korea 9.69K
  91. 191ColumbusOhio, United States 9.61K
  92. 192KošiceKošice Region, Slovakia 9.51K
  93. 193YangsanGyeongsangnam-do, South Korea 8.95K
  94. 194ChiguayanteBiobio, Chile 8.87K
  95. 195StuttgartBaden-Wurttemberg, Germany 8.69K
  96. 196HongseongChungcheongnam-do, South Korea 8.56K
  97. 197MurreePunjab, Pakistan 8.33K
  98. 198QuillotaValparaiso, Chile 8.26K
  99. 199HoustonTexas, United States 8.09K
  100. 200SpokaneWashington, United States 8.02K

What stands behind each figure: Checked at 2+ sites One reference monitor Low-cost sensors About these marks

Low-cost sensors: consumer units, counted only in cities with no government-grade monitor; they read close to reference monitors on the whole, but 15 to 25% high in humid air. How we use them.

Good0–50
Moderate51–100
Unhealthy for sensitive groups101–150
Unhealthy151–200
Very unhealthy201–300
Hazardous301+

The US EPA's Air Quality Index for PM2.5 (2024 breakpoints). Show values as: µg/m³ · US AQI · India AQI · China AQI · European AQI · UK DAQI · Canada AQHI+. About the scales

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

Use this board

SmogRank, all cities ranked by people breathing unhealthy air (PM2.5), this year to 14 Oct 2026, 07:00 UTC: each city's population times its share of measured days with a daily mean over 35.4 µg/m³ (only cities with 2 or more monitoring places 3 km or more apart), cities measured on 70% or more of the days since 1 January (at least 14). Monitor data from national networks via OpenAQ and the publishers listed at smogrank.com/sources. smogrank.com/rankings?w=year&by=people. Ranked on low-cost sensors, with no reference monitor in the city: #1 Lahore, #3 Dhaka, #4 Lagos, #5 Peshawar, #6 Karachi and #7 Faisalabad. Some values from Sensor.Community, ODbL. Some readings from Aurassure; Vietnam's government monitors; Department of Environment, Nepal; RMCAB (Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente, Bogotá); Umhverfisstofnun (Environment Agency of Iceland), no reuse terms published.

Download top 10 by average (PNG)

You're welcome to reuse a single chart, image or figure with this citation and a link. Terms. Raw monitor readings in bulk are published by OpenAQ, under each provider's licence.

Updated 2026-10-14 07:07 UTC. Values are PM2.5 (fine particles), the median of each city's monitors, as the US AQI PM2.5 sub-index. Some low-cost readings: Sensor.Community, ODbL (data and licence). Some readings: Aurassure; Vietnam's government monitors; Department of Environment, Nepal; RMCAB (Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente, Bogotá); Umhverfisstofnun (Environment Agency of Iceland), no reuse terms published (why we use them).