SmogRank / World / United States / California / December 2024

Most polluted cities in California, United States, December 2024

113 cities in California, United States ranked by their average PM2.5 over the 31 days. Worst: Bakersfield at 29.0 µg/m³, #102 of 2,573 cities in the world. Cleanest: Ridgecrest at 2.3. A city needs measurements on 70% of the days to be ranked.

About 687K people in these 21 cities breathed unhealthy air on an average day of December 2024.

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.

← Los Angeles 370K 300K0
Every city in California, United States ranked for December 2024 with monitors in two or more places, one column each, ranked by people breathing unhealthy air: height is people on an average day, colour its average. Point at it to read a city; tap to open it.
  1. 1Los Angeles
    370K
  2. 2Fresno
    157K
  3. 3Bakersfield
    133K
  4. 4Merced
    10.6K
  5. 5Compton
    9.53K
  6. 6Palo Altolow-cost sensors
    4.46K
  7. 7Carsonlow-cost sensors
    3.01K
  8. 8Inglewoodlow-cost sensors
    0
  9. 9Torrancelow-cost sensors
    0
  10. 10Santa Monicalow-cost sensors
    0
  11. 11San Jose
    0
  12. 12Agouralow-cost sensors
    0
  13. 13La Crescenta-Montroselow-cost sensors
    0
  14. 14Watsonvillelow-cost sensors
    0
  15. 15Goletalow-cost sensors
    0
  16. 16Live Oaklow-cost sensors
    0
  17. 16Sunnyvalelow-cost sensors
    0
  18. 18Prunedalelow-cost sensors
    0
  19. 19Seasidelow-cost sensors
    0
  20. 20Windsorlow-cost sensors
    0
  21. 21Banning
    0

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
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

All cities in the world, December 2024 · All cities in United States, December 2024 · California now

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SmogRank, most polluted cities in California, United States, PM2.5, December 2024, smogrank.com/us/region/california/history/2024-12 (accessed 7 Oct 2026).

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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.