The world’s most polluted holiday resorts revealed, from Italy to Greece
Italy, Turkey and Greece are among the European holiday hotspots with the highest levels of air pollution, while the Costa del Sol and Iceland have among the best air quality, according to a new study.
The global air quality survey, conducted by IQAir, reveals that 124 of the 134 countries and regions with available data exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual average PM2.5 guideline of 5 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) in 2023.
PM2.5 is fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less (a micrometre is a millionth of a metre). For comparison, human hair has a diameter of 50-70 micrometres and a fine piece of beach sand has a diameter of 90 micrometres.
IQAir said: “Causing an estimated one in every nine deaths worldwide, air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to human health.” It causes asthma and lung disease, among other diseases.
The most (and least) polluted countries in Europe
The Balkans region suffers from the poorest air pollution levels in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina has the worst, with an average PM2.5 reading (27.5 µg/m3) on a par with Senegal and Uganda. However, this is a marked improvement on 2020 when that figure was 40.6. Second for poorest air quality in Europe is North Macedonia, followed by Montenegro and Serbia.
Northern European countries can breathe easier. Iceland (4 µg/m3) has some of the cleanest air on the planet – trumped only by Mauritius and French Polynesia globally. Estonia, Finland and Sweden are the other European countries with low concentration of fine particulate matter.
How do our favourite holiday destinations rank?
Looking at the ten most popular holiday destinations globally (according to 2023 Tripadvisor research), the destinations with the cleanest air are Benidorm in Spain and Albufeira in Portugal (judging by the air quality readings from the nearest urban settlements of Alicante and Faro). The other top beach destination, Antalya, suffers far worse air quality – in the bottom 13 percentile of all cities globally.
Of the UK’s favourite city break destinations, Amsterdam has the best air quality, followed by Paris, Barcelona, New York City and Rome. One of the worst cities globally is Dubai, which has a PM2.5 average concentration of 43.6 µg/m3. The annual average reading in Kensington, by comparison, is 7.9.
The best (and worst) spots in the UK
There are only four parts of England which meet the WHO guidelines of 5 micrograms or less per cubic metre. These are Newton Abbot in South Devon (5 µg/m3), Redcar in North Yorkshire (4.9), Stape in North Yorkshire (4.5) and Chirk in Wales (4.2). There are many cleaner air zones in Scotland, including Edinburgh (4.9), Motherwell (4.1) and Inverness (4.5). Nowhere in Northern Ireland meets the WHO guidelines.
The best and worst in the world
The most polluted country in the world for fine particulate matter in 2023 was Bangladesh (79.9 µg/m3) which is more than 15 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline. This is followed by Pakistan (73.7), India (54.4), Tajikistan (49) and Burkina Faso (46.6).
The region of Central and South Asia was home to 97 of the 100 most polluted cities on Earth. The vast majority of these cities, 83 in total, are in India. The three that don’t fall within Central or South Asia are Benoni in South Africa, Tay Ho in Vietnam, and South Tangerang in Indonesia. The most polluted city in the world is Begusarai, in the northeastern corner of India on the north bank of the Ganges, which has an average annual PM2.5 reading of 118.9 µg/m3.
Only seven countries in the study meet the WHO annual PM2.5 guidelines of an annual average of 5 µg/m3 or less. These are Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand, plus the overseas territories of Bermuda and French Polynesia. The least polluted urban settlement in the study is Kuusamo, Finland, in the Northern Ostrobothnia region close to the Russian border.
What about right now?
IQAir also collates live air quality readings in major cities around the world. At the time of writing on Wednesday March 20, 2024, Kathmandu (169 µg/m3), Delhi (168), Dhaka (162) and Lahore (158) are among the most polluted cities on Earth. Anything from 151-200 in the live rankings is classified as “unhealthy”. The clearest airs are found in Detroit (4 µg/m3), Auckland (6 µg/m3) and Tokyo (8 µg/m3). London’s average currently sits at 33 µg/m3, which falls in the category of “Good”.
How the data is collated
The IQ Air study includes all cities that provided annual PM2.5 data from ground level air quality monitoring stations, with hourly data for a minimum of 60 per cent of the year (equivalent to at least 5,256 hours of an available 8,760).
For the 2023 survey, IQAir drew data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,812 locations in 134 countries. However, there were many countries and regions with insufficient data to be included in the study. More than a third of the population of the African continent do not live in an area where air quality data is tracked.
IQAir says: “While the number of countries and regions with air quality monitoring has steadily increased over the past six years, there remain significant gaps in government-operated regulatory instrumentation in many parts of the world.”
The countries of Chad, Sudan and Iran are among the dozens of countries entirely absent from the study due to a lack of publicly available monitoring data.
“Low-cost air quality monitors, sponsored and hosted by citizen scientists, researchers, community advocates, and local organisations, have proven to be valuable tools to reduce gaps in air monitoring networks across the world,” IQair added.
