Countries in Asia by air pollution (pm2.5)

Countries in Asia by air pollution (pm2.5), World Bank, 2023

#	Country	µg/m³	Region
1	Qatar	107.8	Western Asia
2	Saudi Arabia	73.5	Western Asia
3	Bangladesh	69.3	Southern Asia
4	Kuwait	62.3	Western Asia
5	Pakistan	58.4	Southern Asia
6	United Arab Emirates	57.2	Western Asia
7	Bahrain	56.6	Western Asia
8	India	54.1	Southern Asia
9	Nepal	53.2	Southern Asia
10	Iraq	49.5	Western Asia
11	Oman	46.9	Western Asia
12	Yemen	46.8	Western Asia
13	Mongolia	42.7	Eastern Asia
14	Iran	40.2	Southern Asia
15	Afghanistan	37.9	Southern Asia
16	Myanmar	35.1	South-Eastern Asia
17	Tajikistan	33.3	Central Asia
18	Uzbekistan	32.8	Central Asia
19	Jordan	32.6	Western Asia
20	Syria	32.1	Western Asia
21	China	32.0	Eastern Asia
22	Turkmenistan	31.2	Central Asia
23	Bhutan	30.1	Southern Asia
24	Armenia	28.6	Western Asia
25	Lebanon	26.7	Western Asia
26	Turkey	26.4	Western Asia
27	Laos	26.0	South-Eastern Asia
28	Vietnam	24.8	South-Eastern Asia
29	Azerbaijan	23.7	Western Asia
30	Thailand	23.5	South-Eastern Asia
31	Sri Lanka	22.7	Southern Asia
32	Philippines	22.2	South-Eastern Asia
=33	Israel	21.9	Western Asia
=33	South Korea	21.9	Eastern Asia
35	North Korea	21.8	Eastern Asia
36	Indonesia	20.8	South-Eastern Asia
37	Kyrgyzstan	20.1	Central Asia
38	Kazakhstan	19.6	Central Asia
39	Cambodia	19.4	South-Eastern Asia
40	Georgia	18.6	Western Asia
41	Cyprus	16.1	Western Asia
42	Malaysia	15.9	South-Eastern Asia
43	Singapore	15.1	South-Eastern Asia
44	Timor-Leste	12.0	South-Eastern Asia
45	Japan	11.5	Eastern Asia
46	Maldives	11.2	Southern Asia
47	Brunei	7.6	South-Eastern Asia

No World Bank figure for Taiwan.

Territories and other places

Not ranked: dependencies of the states above, places whose status is disputed. Highest first.

Place	µg/m³	Status
Palestine	22.4	Status disputed

Questions

Which country in Asia has the most polluted air?

Qatar has the most polluted air in Asia: 107.8 µg/m³ (2023). Next come Saudi Arabia (73.5 µg/m³) and Bangladesh (69.3 µg/m³).

Which country in Asia has the cleanest air?

Brunei, with 7.6 µg/m³ (2023).

What is the typical air pollution (pm2.5) of a country in Asia?

The median of the 47 countries in Asia is 28.6 µg/m³: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.

Where do the figures come from?

The average concentration of fine particles (PM2.5) in the air people breathe over a year, in micrograms per cubic metre. The WHO’s guideline is 5. Source: World Bank, 2023. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures more than 5 years older than the newest are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.