SmogRank / Turkey / Istanbul / Istanbul
Istanbul, month by month
We don't read Turkey's government monitoring network: it publishes only on its own website. Its website doesn't answer requests from outside the country, so we can't read it. Istanbul's figures come from community low-cost sensors, not that network. What we measure in Turkey.
Istanbul has a measured daily mean on 711 days since 4 October 2024. Its worst month was September 2025, at 112 US AQI (39.8 µg/m³), 28th of 3,245 cities on that month's world ranking. Its cleanest was April 2026, at 64 US AQI (15.9 µg/m³).
Every month since 2024
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
Months without a mean, and why
1 month
| Month | Why |
|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 14 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 17 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
A day counts once 18 hours of it are measured; a month needs 70% of its days.
Istanbul's worst months
| Month | US AQI | World rank | Episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 11239.8 µg/m³ | 28thof 3,245 | – |
| August 2025 | 10035.3 µg/m³ | 46thof 3,095 | – |
| January 2025 | 9934.8 µg/m³ | 93rdof 2,754 | Germany, France and 19 more countries, January 2025 |
| November 2025 | 9432.2 µg/m³ | 245thof 2,935 | – |
| February 2025 | 9331.6 µg/m³ | 217thof 2,852 | – |
| March 2025 | 9331.4 µg/m³ | 255thof 3,102 | Germany, Poland and 25 more countries, March 2025 |
Monthly means over the days measured; finished months only. World rank: its place on that month's world ranking of every city with enough days. Each month opens that ranking.
Istanbul's worst days
| Day | US AQI | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Mar 2025 | 16373.2 µg/m³ | Germany, Poland and 25 more countries, March 2025 |
| 12 Sept 2025 | 16169.4 µg/m³ | – |
| 5 Sept 2025 | 15865.9 µg/m³ | – |
| 13 Sept 2025 | 15865.4 µg/m³ | – |
| 14 Sept 2025 | 15459.2 µg/m³ | – |
| 19 Dec 2024 | 15459.1 µg/m³ | Serbia, Slovenia and 10 more countries, December 2024 |
| 23 Jan 2025 | 15358.9 µg/m³ | Germany, France and 19 more countries, January 2025 |
| 7 Sept 2025 | 15358.9 µg/m³ | – |
| 3 Sept 2025 | 15257.4 µg/m³ | – |
| 11 Sept 2025 | 15257.0 µg/m³ | – |
Daily means, the highest since 4 Oct 2024; the WHO's daily guideline is 15 µg/m³. Each date opens that day's world ranking, and each episode the bad-air spell it was part of.
Use this history
SmogRank, PM2.5 monthly and daily means, Istanbul, Turkey, 4 Oct 2024 – 13 Oct 2026. Monitor data from airqoon via OpenAQ; sources listed at smogrank.com/sources. smogrank.com/tr/istanbul/history (accessed 14 Oct 2026).
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.
Istanbul now: the last 24 hours, its ranks today and the last 12 months day by day.
Updated 2026-10-14 00:07 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: Uzhydromet (Uzbekistan's Hydrometeorological Service); Department of Environment, Nepal; Vietnam's government monitors; Aurassure; Umhverfisstofnun (Environment Agency of Iceland); RMCAB (Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente, Bogotá); Love My Air (City and County of Denver), no reuse terms published (why we use them).