World Most Polluted City List 2026 is out. IQAir's World Air Quality Report 2025, released on 24 March 2026, has placed Loni in Uttar Pradesh at the top with an annual average PM2.5 level of 112.5 µg/m³. That is almost 22 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organization.
WHO recommends an annual PM2.5 level below 5 µg/m³. Anything above that can lead to serious breathing problems, heart disease, strokes and lung cancer. The latest report studied air quality data from 9,446 cities across 143 countries, collected from more than 40,000 monitoring stations run by governments, universities and citizen scientists.
World Most Polluted City List 2026
Air pollution is not limited to one region. The top of the list is packed with cities from India, Pakistan and China. Five of the ten most polluted cities in the world are in India, which shows how serious the problem is across the Indo-Gangetic Plain and nearby areas.
Common reasons behind high PM2.5 levels include vehicle emissions, factory smoke, construction dust, coal and wood burning, crop residue burning and winter smog that traps polluted air close to the ground. Desert dust also plays a big role in cities like Hotan in China.
India ranked as the sixth most polluted country in the world with a population-weighted average PM2.5 level of 48.9 µg/m³. Pakistan topped the country list at 67.3 µg/m³, followed by Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Only 13 countries managed to stay within the WHO limit.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| List Name | World Most Polluted City List 2026 |
| Report Name | IQAir World Air Quality Report 2025 |
| Released On | 24 March 2026 |
| Most Polluted City | Loni, Uttar Pradesh, India (112.5 µg/m³) |
| Most Polluted Country | Pakistan (67.3 µg/m³) |
| India's Country Rank | 6th (48.9 µg/m³) |
| Cities Covered | 9,446 cities across 143 countries |
| WHO Safe Limit | 5 µg/m³ annual average |
Top 20 Most Polluted Cities in the World
The table below shows the 20 cities with the highest annual average PM2.5 levels in the 2025 dataset. Loni leads the pack, followed by Hotan in China and Byrnihat in Meghalaya. Delhi sits at the fourth spot, and New Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad also appear in the top 20.
| Rank | City Name | Country | PM2.5 (µg/m³) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loni | India | 112.5 |
| 2 | Hotan | China | 109.6 |
| 3 | Byrnihat | India | 101.1 |
| 4 | Delhi | India | 99.6 |
| 5 | Faisalabad | Pakistan | 98.8 |
| 6 | Rahim Yar Khan | Pakistan | 92.6 |
| 7 | Ghaziabad | India | 89.2 |
| 8 | Lahore | Pakistan | 88.9 |
| 9 | Sukkur | Pakistan | 88.6 |
| 10 | Ula | India | 86.8 |
| 11 | Pattoki | Pakistan | 86.7 |
| 12 | Mullanpur | India | 86.2 |
| 13 | Lodhran | Pakistan | 85.3 |
| 14 | Kashgar | China | 84.0 |
| 15 | Madhyamgram | India | 83.3 |
| 16 | New Delhi | India | 82.2 |
| 17 | Peshawar | Pakistan | 81.7 |
| 18 | Noida | India | 80.5 |
| 19 | Kizilsu | China | 79.7 |
| 20 | Sialkot | Pakistan | 78.6 |
World Most Polluted City List PDF
The full World Air Quality Report 2025 is available on the official IQAir website. It carries city-wise PM2.5 data for all 9,446 cities covered in the study, along with country rankings and regional findings. You can also read the main India findings from the report in this IQAir World Air Quality Report 2025 news report.
How to Check the World Most Polluted City List
The list is updated once a year, usually in March. You can check the ranking and download the report by following these steps.
STEP 1 - Open the official IQAir website and go to the World Air Quality Report section. The new report is released every year in March.
STEP 2 - Look for the "World's Most Polluted Cities" page, where cities are ranked by their annual average PM2.5 level.
STEP 3 - Use the search box to find a specific city, or filter the list by country to see where Indian cities stand.
STEP 4 - Download the full report PDF from the same page to see the complete city-wise data and country rankings.
Indian Cities in the World Most Polluted City List
India has a strong presence in the top 20, which points to a regional pollution problem rather than a few isolated cities. The main Indian cities in the list are given below.
- Loni in Uttar Pradesh holds the first rank with 112.5 µg/m³, the highest annual average in the world.
- Byrnihat in Meghalaya is third with 101.1 µg/m³, and it has stayed near the top for a few years now.
- Delhi is fourth with 99.6 µg/m³, while New Delhi separately ranks 16th with 82.2 µg/m³.
- Ghaziabad is seventh with 89.2 µg/m³, and Noida is 18th with 80.5 µg/m³.
- Ula in West Bengal is tenth with 86.8 µg/m³, and Mullanpur in Punjab is 12th with 86.2 µg/m³.
Also Check