Ever wondered which cities in India have the best air quality and AQI? The city with with the best AQI and cleanest air might not be where you think. I analyzed the data from the World Health Organization’s database of annual particulate pollution (PM2.5) averages for 122 cities. Here’s what I found.
Agra Through Mumbai
122 cities is too much for one graph, so to map out the pollution levels, I broke it in half. Here’s A through M from cities in India with the worst air quality (highest PM2.5 in the graph) to the best air quality (lowest PM2.5 number is the graph).
Note: the numbers used in this graph show PM2.5 concentration, not the ‘Air Quality Index’ or AQI. US AQI levels (not to be confused with NAQI) are indicated by the color bands going from green (‘Good’) to purple (‘Hazardous’) on the left hand side. To find out more about the relationship between “air quality index” or AQI, and PM2.5 concentration, check out the EPA’s Air Quality Index calculator.

Here’s that same list in alphabetical order.

Nagaon Through Warangal
Here’s cities in India, N through Z from highest pollution levels to lowest pollution levels.

And here’s that same list in alphabetical order.

Takeaway 1: It helps to be later in the alphabet
For some unknown reason (regional linguistic differences?), you’re better off on average if you’re living in an N-Z city in India (48 micrograms) rather than an A-M city (66 micrograms)!
Takeaway 2: Only one city is under the WHO annual limit
The World Health Organization’s annual limit is 10 micrograms/m3. Only one city in India came in under that limit, and can claim to be India’s least polluted city—Tezpur, Assam. That means Tezpur takes the spot as the city with best air quality in India!
Maybe 10 micrograms is a ridiculous, unattainable limit? It’s true that my university’s city, Chicago, is above that limit (12 micrograms), although New York City is just below it (9 micrograms). Many major developed cities are around 10 micrograms. Still, if you’re looking to move to a city with the cleanest air in India, then the take-home is that Tezpur is the place for you.
Takeaway 3: Seven cities are under the looser WHO 24-hour limit
If the 10 microgram limit is too strict, we can try out the looser 24-hour limit of 25 micrograms. Based on that limit, seven cities on the top 10 list make the cut. That’s a meager 6% of cities under this looser limit, or 6% of cities in India have air quality levels that are almost acceptable.
India’s Top 10
India’s top 10 cities with the best air quality, according to this database are:
- Tezpur (6 micrograms)
- Pathanamthitta (12)
- Hassan (19)
- Chitoor (21)
- Kollam (22)
- Puducherry (22)
- Bongaigaon (24)
- Madurai (26)
- Warangal (26)
- Alappuzha (27)
India’s Bottom 10
The cities in India with the worst air quality, or the highest levels of air pollution, according to this database are:
- Gwalior (176 micrograms)
- Allahabad (170)
- Patna (149)
- Raipur (144)
- Delhi (122)
- Ludhiana (122)
- Kanpur (115)
- Khanna (114)
- Firozabad (113)
- Lucknow (113)
Caveats
Now, this data isn’t perfect. For one, it’s from 2012, so it’s a bit old.
Second, some Indian cities don’t measure PM2.5, so the WHO infers it from the larger PM10 particles (what’s the difference?). I’ve discovered that the WHO database vastly underestimates pollution levels in Beijing compared to my analysis of local data.
To some extent, the exact top and bottom cities for air quality in India are arbitrary. Different articles use different data sources and will come up with a different answer for the best air quality in India. But the bigger picture of air quality across India holds up regardless of the dataset – Indian cities are dangerously polluted and you need to protect yourself.
How I Protect Myself
Smart Air is a certified B Corp committed to combating the myths big companies use to inflate the price of clean air.
Smart Air provides empirically backed, no-nonsense purifiers and masks, that remove the same particles as the big companies for a fraction of the cost. Only corporations benefit when clean air is a luxury.
India’s air quality is far from safe. Stay smart, do the research, and breath safe today!
Free Guide to Breathing Safe
Want to learn more about breathing clean air? Join thousands more and stay up to date on protecting your health.
lucknow is 180 air Quality index
I want to join you for your air pollution control effort/clean air
Air pollution
Great to hear that Aslam! We’re always looking for people to join our clean air movement! You can check out our job posting on our job page, or if you’re interested in becoming a clean air guru and sharing knowledge about air pollution to help others protect themselves, check out this flyer then send us an email!
I want to join too
Hey Jignesh! We’re actually looking for volunteers to help out fighting the toxic air pollution we’re facing across India right now. If you have time to spare and want to join the Smart Air cause, then check out this tweet for more information!
Sir, why purifier will fit in the vehicles exhaust? Then we get good air
Great question Anoop! Purifiers for vehicle exhausts are something that has been considered before, but to date I’m yet to see any real practical solutions that everyone can afford, and more importantly: that everyone will use. Pollution from cars also only makes up one part of the air pollution problem, there are many more sources of air pollution (like burning of trash, or factories) that we’d also need to solve before we get clean air!
Where is Agartala? #SmartAir
Hey Mainak, Good question! The WHO database unfortunately does not have data for Agartala so we were unable to analyse it.
The AirVisual database has a measurement for Agartala, which shows the current level to be 98µg/m3