Top 10 Polluted Countries in the World - 2022

 

“Too many people around the world don’t know that they are breathing polluted air,” Aidan Farrow, senior air quality scientist at Greenpeace International, said in a statement.

About 90% of the global population in 2022 experienced unhealthy air quality, and only six countries met the World Health Organization’s recommendations of safe air pollutant levels, according to a new report from Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

IQAir measured air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM 2.5. Research shows that exposure to such particulate matter can lead to heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature death. Studies have also linked long-term exposure to PM 2.5 with higher rates of death from Covid-19.

The top five most polluted countries in 2022 were Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh. The most polluted cities globally were Lahore, Pakistan; Hotan, China; Bhiwadi, India; Delhi, India; and Peshawar, Pakistan.

Lahore’s air quality worsened to 97.4 micrograms of PM 2.5 particles per cubic meter in 2022 from 86.5 in the year prior, making it the most polluted city in the world.

The report also said India and Pakistan endured the worst air quality in the Central and South Asian region, where more than half of the population resides in areas where the concentration of PM 2.5 particles is about seven times higher than WHO’s suggested levels.

Only six countries met the WHO’s updated health limits: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand. The 2022 report used air quality data from more than 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and air quality sensors from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions and territories.