The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Will poor air quality blight my holiday?
Italy, Turkey and Greece are among the European holiday spots 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, by IQAir, reveals that 124 of the 134 countries and regions with available data exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual average guidelines for PM2.5 – particulate matter so fine it can travel deep into the lungs – in 2023. Their PM2.5 count was found to be higher than the recommended 5 micrograms per cubic metre (mcg/m3) or less.
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, for example.
The Balkans region suffers from the poorest air quality in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina has the worst, with an average PM2.5 reading of 27.5 mcg/m3, on a par with Senegal and Uganda. This is an improvement on 2020, when the 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 mcg/m3) has some of the cleanest air – trumped only by Mauritius and French Polynesia globally. Estonia, Finland and Sweden are the other European countries with low levels of fine particulate matter.
Looking at the 10 most popular holiday destinations globally (according to 2023 Tripadvisor research), the destinations with the cleanest air are Benidorm in Spain and Albufeira in Portugal ( judged on air quality readings from the nearest urban settlements: Alicante and Faro). Antalya in Turkey suffers far worse air quality – it is 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 is Dubai, which has a PM2.5 average concentration of 43.6 mcg/m3.
The most polluted country in the world for fine particulate matter in 2023 was Bangladesh (79.9 mcg/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 Central and South Asia regions were home to 97 of the 100 most polluted cities on Earth. Most of them, 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 mcg/m3.
Only seven countries in the study meet the WHO guidelines of an annual average of 5 mcg/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 is Kuusamo, Finland, in the Northern Ostrobothnia region close to the Russian border.
IQAir also collates live air quality readings in major cities around the world. On March 20 2024, Kathmandu (169mcg/m3), Delhi (168), Dhaka (162) and Lahore (158) were among the most polluted cities. Anything from 151 to 200 in the live rankings is “unhealthy”. And the clearest air? You will find that in Detroit (4 mcg/m3), Auckland (6 mcg/m3) and Tokyo (8 mcg/m3).