Pakistan Tops Air Pollution Rankings
The latest annual review by the Switzerland-based air quality company IQAir has determined that Pakistan is now the most polluted country in the world, surpassing last year’s winner, Chad, along with Bangladesh and India.
According to the 2025 Global Air Quality Report, Loni, a city in India, stands out as potentially the most polluted city on the planet, with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels about 22 times above the safe limits established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The rankings of the five most polluted countries are as follows: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Notably, the 25 most polluted cities globally are all found in India, Pakistan, or China, and no major cities in East Asia met the WHO’s air quality guidelines in 2024 or 2025.
IQAir pointed out that around 91 percent of countries and territories worldwide fail to meet WHO standards for air quality. Only 13 regions, primarily islands or remote areas like Iceland, are exceptions.
The particulate matter levels reported by the World Air Quality Report take into account contributions from wildfires. Canada managed a low rank last year, although smoke drift caused higher PM2.5 readings in northern U.S. cities.
In the 2024 edition of the report, the most polluted countries included Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and India.
This year, India slipped to sixth place, a minor improvement attributed to government initiatives aimed at reducing sulfur emissions from diesel fuel, transitioning to cleaner industrial fuels, and enforcing air quality regulations in heavily polluted cities.
In Bangladesh, the severe air quality issues are largely tied to rapid population growth and industrial expansion in a limited geographic area, particularly in the capital city of Dhaka, according to researchers at IQAir.
IQAir also mentioned that some variations in air quality levels might stem from data collection errors. The company criticized the U.S. government for discontinuing a global surveillance program that gathered data from U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide.
This U.S. program, started in 2008, was canceled last March due to budget issues. Critics have pointed out that in several countries, data from U.S. embassies is often the most reliable air quality information available to researchers.
