Share.

33 Comments

  1. The amount of dirt that came out when blowing my nose in India was utterly disguising.

    Been to 50+ countries and that was the worst overall in terms of air quality.

  2. The_Dirty_Mac on

    Very generous definition of “city” here. Dexter OR for example is an unincorporated community of less than 1000

  3. Living on this island, as far as least polluted, 6 & 18 are the same place and all the other ones in Hawaii are also here on Hawaii Island. However, when our volcano is regularly erupting as it has been since the end of 2024, 6, 15, 18, 19, and 20 have quite significant and sometimes hazardous levels of air pollution due to volcanic smog aka vog. Aside from that, the reason so many places on this island are on the least polluted list is because wind comes from the east over about 3000 miles of ocean and even the heavily populated areas (“cities” of around 40k) have any air pollution quickly dispersed and away from the island.

  4. Not sure how they’re defining a “city” but comparing Broken Hill a mining town of 17K people in the middle of nowhere Australia to Delhi’s 35m seem at best a little pointless.

  5. “Cities”?

    Most of these are unincorporated communities or very small towns. Dexter, OR has less than 1000 people.

    Mayaguez is impressive if true though. That’s a medium sized city – about 200k in its statistical area.

  6. foundafreeusername on

    Least polluted isn’t very helpful. This usually just means the town is rich enough for a proper station to record air quality and far enough away from any human or natural sources of pollution to not read any pollution.

  7. Mysterious-Outcome37 on

    I don’t think Kona belongs on that list cause they usually receive a good amount of VOG (volcanic smog) from Kilauea.

    Source: I lived in Hawaii. πŸ™‚

  8. US reaping the benefits of good air quality by having developing countries manufacture the stuff they need

  9. KAZAKHSTAN TOP 5 IN EVERY THING!!!

    LONG LIVE KAZAKHSTAN πŸ‡°πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡°πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡°πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡°πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡°πŸ‡ΏπŸ‡°πŸ‡Ώ

  10. Up until 7-8 years ago, at least half of Top 10 Dirtiest would be Chinese cities, great progress.

    Everyone should electrify the transportation, both public and private.

  11. I remember hoping off the plane to my first couple of third world countries from Australia and immediately saying what have I done. The smell and air quality was just crazy the immediate effect you had coming from Australia.

  12. ChaoticNeutral159 on

    Not sure how tf Dexter is on here, it and Lane county have been getting decimated by smoke the past half decade every summer. I guess little β€œmanmade” pollutants, but that doesn’t mean the air is perfect all the time

  13. South African here … I have never in my life heard of “Nieuwoudtville” before.
    Wikipedia says it has a population of just over 2,000 … how tf is this classified as a “city” when we have single streets in our capitals that house more people?

    This list is bullshit.

  14. PepperDogger on

    r/hawaii, 8 of the top 20 cleanest “cities” listed. Here’s looking at you, Volcano. I guess they’re measuring when Pele sleeps.

  15. Both Pakistan and North India (where most of the worst polluted cities exist) are geographically and climactically cursed due to the super long hot dry summers only partially attenuated by the monsoons. In wintertime, the inversion layer traps dust and pollutant aerosols while the air stagnates. That entire belt starting from Iran, across Afghanistan and Pakistan into the Gangeric plains suffers from this. It’s like having a daily “Haboob” that lingers for months. The high population and cramped urbanization makes things even worse.

  16. Obviously this idea is inherently flawed. But what I would be interested in would be the cities of the largest population, and then a list of smallest cities with the most influence. The list could just be organized by size, not in order of influence

  17. Dexter, Oregon???

    I live in Oregon and I had to Google where the hell that was. It’s east of Eugene and has a population of less than 900

  18. I’m surprised Hanoi isn’t on this list. Hard to imagine worst air quality than that.

  19. hinterstoisser on

    New Delhi and Delhi are the same city. One was built about a 100 years ago, the other has been around over a 1000 years