In 2022, Lahore in Pakistan will have the worst air in the world, according to a global assessment conducted annually by a Swiss air purifier manufacturer.
According to the IQAir study released on Tuesday, Chad in central Africa overtook Bangladesh as the nation with the worst air quality in 2017.
Based on the concentration of PM2.5, which can harm the lungs, IQAir gauges the quality of the air. Researchers and government agencies frequently cite its yearly survey.
The sole Chinese city in the top 20 was Hotan, which came in second behind Lahore with PM2.5 levels of 94.3 (down from 101.5 in 2021).
Bhiwadi, a small town outside of Delhi, came in second in the rankings with pollution levels of 92.7, and Delhi came in second with 92.6. Both cities were in India.
5 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter is the limit that the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests.
As Bangladesh’s air quality improved from 2021, when it was named the country with the worst air, Pakistan, which had two of the five cities with the worst air in 2022, came in third place overall with a score of 70.9, followed by Bahrain with a score of 66.6. With PM2.5 levels dropping to 65.8 from 76.9, it is placed fifth in the most recent study.
Over 60% of the population in Central and South Asia, where the concentration of PM2.5 particles is at least seven times greater than WHO’s recommended threshold, lives in India and Pakistan, according to the survey, which found that these two countries had the poorest air quality.