According to the World Air Quality Report 2020, New Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital for the third straight year in 2020.
- The report was published by the IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM2.5.
- At a country level, India the third most polluted country in 2020, unlike in 2019, when its air was the fifth most noxious. Average pollution levels were 51.9 μg/m³ in 2020 compared with 58.1 μg/m³ in 2019.
- Bangladesh and Pakistan were the countries in 2020 with worse average PM2.5 levels than India.
- When ranked by cities, Hotan in China was the most polluted, followed by Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Of the 15 most polluted cities, 13 were in India.
- The findings were based on the country’s annual average of particulate matter PM2.5, airborne particles with less than 2.5 microns in diameter.
