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The 10 Countries With the World's Dirtiest Air |
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IQAir published its 2025 air quality report on March 24. It measures 9,446 cities across 143 countries. Pakistan is the most polluted country on Earth, at 67.3 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic metre of air. Pakistan's air got cleaner last year. It rose from third place to first anyway. |
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Source: IQAir 2025 World Air Quality Report, released March 24, 2026. Annual average PM2.5 in micrograms per cubic metre, 143 countries. |
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| What's Surprising |
Pakistan averaged 67.3 micrograms of PM2.5 over 2025. In last year's report it ranked third, at 73.7. The air over Pakistan improved by 9% and the country still finished first. Chad led the 2024 list at 91.8. Chad is now fourth, at 53.6 — 42% lower in twelve months.
The ranking moved because the dataset moved. IQAir covered 8,954 locations in 138 countries and regions for 2024. For 2025 it covered 9,446 cities in 143. Burundi, Turkmenistan and Togo are absent from this year's report for want of data. A national average built from a handful of monitors swings when the monitors change. We would not read Chad's 42% as clean air arriving in the Sahel.
India left the top five for the first time. It sits sixth, at 48.9, down 3% on the year. The cities tell the other story. The 25 most polluted cities measured anywhere in 2025 were all in India, Pakistan or China, and three of the four worst were Indian. Loni, in Uttar Pradesh, averaged 112.5. National averages hide cities.
| What's Not Surprising |
The WHO guideline for annual PM2.5 is 5 micrograms per cubic metre. Uzbekistan, tenth on this list at 38.1, is more than seven times over it. Pakistan is more than thirteen times over. The geography is the geography we expect: South Asia, Central Asia, the Sahel, the Gulf. Nothing in the top ten arrives from nowhere.
The rich world sits just above the line, and not far above it. The United States averaged 7.3. The United Kingdom 8.7. Germany 9.4. Brazil 10.0. Cleaner than every country on the chart, and still over the guideline. Thirteen countries and territories out of 143 met it for the full year, and most of those are small islands — French Polynesia, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Réunion. Australia and Estonia are the two with real land area.
The city number went the other way. 14% of cities met the guideline in 2025, against 17% in 2024. More countries cleared the bar and fewer cities did. Both are true at once, and the second one matters more. People live in the cities.
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13× How far Pakistan's air sits above the WHO annual guideline of 5 micrograms. Nine times the United States average. |
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14% Share of the 9,446 cities measured that met the WHO guideline in 2025. In 2024 it was 17%. |
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13 of 143 Countries and territories that met the guideline for a full year. Seven managed it in the 2024 report. |
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112.5 Micrograms per cubic metre in Loni, India — the most polluted city measured anywhere in 2025. Twenty-two times the guideline. |
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7.3 The United States annual average, 120th of 143 countries. Cleaner than every country on the chart, and still 46% above the guideline. |
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IQAir publishes each March, so the 2026 report is due next March. Two things to track before it lands. First, the smog season. Lahore, Delhi and Dhaka post their worst readings from October to January, when crop burning meets cold, still air. Second, the monitors. Three countries dropped out of this year's report for want of data, and coverage grew from 138 countries to 143. Half the movement in a ranking like this is measurement, not air. We'll be watching. |
