Indian cities with air pollution dominate global pollution rankings: report. March 12, 2025

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By AFP - Agence France Presse

Indian cities with air pollution dominate global pollution rankings: report.

Despite an improvement in 2024, India again dominated the global rankings of cities with the most dangerous pollution particles, while Chad was the most polluted country, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The report by IQAir, a Swiss air technology company, said that Byrnihat in India was the “most polluted metropolitan area in the world in 2024”.

The Indian capital, New Delhi, was the most polluted capital in the world, closely followed by N'Djamena in Chad. Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, came third, ahead of Kinshasa and Islamabad.

Chad topped the rankings for the most polluted country overall, with readings 18 times higher than the World Health Organization's safe levels for concentrations of particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5)

The country was followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and India in fifth place. India was home to six of the nine most polluted cities in the world.

Byrnihat, an industrial city on the border of the states of Meghalaya and Assam, had a PM2.5 reading of 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter on average in 2024, more than 25 times the WHO's recommended level of five micrograms.

Concentrations across India were 50.6 micrograms per cubic meter, 10 times the WHO safe level, according to the IQAir report, prepared with the support of Greenpeace.

The overall level was seven percent lower than in 2023, but Indian cities are still suffering greatly from the concentrations of small particles, that come from vehicles, agricultural fires, garbage, and industrial waste.

South Asian pollution skyrockets in the winter months and, highlighting India's struggle, the report said that Baddi, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, had an average reading of 165 microns in January - 33 times the WHO safe level.

According to the report, five Pakistani cities recorded levels above 200 microns in November.

The study was based on “more than 40,000 air quality monitoring stations at 8,954 locations in 138 countries, territories and regions analyzed by IQAir's air quality scientists,” it said.

“Oceania is the cleanest region in the world, with 57% of regional cities achieving the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline value,” said the report.

Bosnia was the most polluted country in Europe, with PM2.5 levels more than five times above the WHO limit. The country was followed by North Macedonia and Serbia. Novi Pazar in Serbia was the most polluted city, according to the report.

Burkina Faso, ranked 5th in 2023, as well as Iran and Afghanistan, were not included in the report due to insufficient data.

Only seven countries had concentrations below the WHO guidelines: Estonia, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Grenada and Barbados.

However, 17% of the cities studied reached the WHO standard in 2024, compared to just 9% in 2023, according to the report.

Air pollution - atmospheric and domestic - was the main environmental health risk in 2021, responsible for 8.1 million premature deaths worldwide, according to estimates in the “State of Global Air 2024” report, carried out by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

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