World’s Most Polluted Cities

The world’s most polluted cities in 2023 were in Asia , according a new report by the science monitoring group IQ Air.

Twenty nine of the 30 most polluted were in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh with air quality seven times higher than the United Nations ‘World Health Organisation maximum recommended levels.

All but one of the 100 most polluted were in Asia snd more than 80 of these were in India.

Among the most polluted big cities were Delhi, Lahore and Dhaka

Begusarai, a city of half a million people in northern India’s Bihar state, was the world’s most polluted city last year with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 — 23 times the WHO guidelines. It was followed in the IQAir rankings by the Indian cities of Guwahati, Assam; Delhi; and Mullanpur, Punjab.

Bangladesh as a country had the worst air quality with it being measured as 16 times higher than the WHO guidelines . Nine out of ten most polluted cities were in India.

Only 10 countries and territories had “healthy” air quality : Finland, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and French Polynesia.