WHO: New Delhi has the world's most polluted air

Michael Eko/Getty Images

WHO: New Delhi has the world's most polluted air
(Image credit: Michael Eko/Getty Images)

Congratulations New Delhi, you have the world's most polluted air. A new survey from the World Health Organization asked cities to measure their pollution levels and found that 13 of the top 20 most polluted locations were in India. The study results, which encompassed 1,600 cities, discovered global air pollution had worsened since a similar survey was administered three years ago.

The Indian capital had an average of 153 micrograms of the dirty air particulate PM2.5 per cubic meter. Notably, notoriously smoggy Beijing had a PM2.5 reading of 56, which dropped it to 77th place. There are doubts, however, about whether the city properly recorded the data. The WHO claims the most recent data made available to them was from 2010 — despite the fact that the Chinese government has recorded hourly PM2.5 data since January 2012.

CNN has a full analysis of the data.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.