According to AirVisual’s groundbreaking report and interactive web ranking in review of 2018’s global air quality status, Uzbekistan is ranked 16th most polluted country.
Uzbekistan in the ranking led the countries marked in yellow. This means that the concentration of impurities in the air is acceptable, but people sensitive to pollution should take care of their health. Among other countries in the region, Kazakhstan was ranked 20th. The rest of the Central Asian countries were not included in the rating.
From the CIS countries, Lithuania occupies 42nd, Ukraine - 49th, Russia - 58th positions.
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India are at the top of the list – countries with the most polluted air, while Australia, Finland and Iceland have the cleanest air.
The compilers of the rating note that air pollution presents the world’s 4th leading contributing cause of premature deaths, killing more than 7 million people annually. While its impact on everyday lives may not always be apparent, the global economy silently suffers an estimated 225 billion dollars annually from lost labor.
The data is compiled from both governmental public monitoring sources in addition to public IQAir AirVisual monitoring stations. The report is the first to compile PM2.5 data entirely from 2018 for 3000+ global cities.
Overall, the report reveals that the vast majority of the world breathes unsafely polluted air. 86% of countries with available city data failed to meet WHO exposure targets, while half exceed this target by 200+%. While concerning in itself, these numbers are expected to underestimate true global pollution levels, as countries without air quality monitoring resources are not represented, yet may often have high levels of air pollution which go unmeasured or unpublished. Pakistan, a country which lacked public, real-time air pollution data until 2017, is one example of this. New data contributed by a citizen-led network of PM2.5 monitors, included in this report reveals that the country ranks #2 globally, for highest recorded PM2.5 air pollution.
