New Delhi ranked first in the World Air Quality Index with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 92.7 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The concentration of particulate matter in the Indian capital is many times higher than the latest target of the World Health Organization, and only one other capital comes close to New Delhi’s results in the IQAir ranking.
This is the city Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which showed an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 80.2 micrograms in 2023 per cubic meter of air.
Pollution in other capital cities, although still very high, is significantly different from the levels recorded in India and Bangladesh. Third on the list, Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, had an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 46.6 micrograms per cubic meter of air. This was followed by Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Baghdad (Iraq), where the average annual PM2.5 concentration was 46.0 and 45.8 micrograms, respectively.
The most polluted capital outside Asia and Africa is in Europe
The first capital on the list that is not in Asia or Africa is located in the western Balkans Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with pollution of 28.6 micrograms.
In 2023, the capital of Poland had an average annual concentration of PM2.5 particulate matter of 13.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air. According to the latest guidelines of the World Health Organization from 2021, the maximum daily concentration of PM2.5 suspended dust should not exceed 15 micrograms per cubic meter.
Pollution in capital cities / statista.com
