September 28, 2026
Global Air Quality Update - Week of September 28, 2026
Live data snapshot for September 28, 2026. 217 cities tracked. Global average AQI: 68.
This week's most polluted city is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at AQI 946. The cleanest air right now is in Cali, Colombia at AQI 17.
Biggest changes this week
Worsening
- Dubai, UAE: 136 → 172 AQI (+36)
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 127 → 161 AQI (+34)
- Xian, China: 148 → 179 AQI (+31)
- Dhaka, Bangladesh: 138 → 163 AQI (+25)
- Lucknow, India: 123 → 143 AQI (+20)
Improving
- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 1366 → 946 AQI (-420)
- Kuwait City, Kuwait: 462 → 147 AQI (-315)
- Hanoi, Vietnam: 176 → 122 AQI (-54)
- Faisalabad, Pakistan: 180 → 155 AQI (-25)
- Beijing, China: 175 → 151 AQI (-24)
Global average shifted from 72 to 68 (-4).
Top 10 most polluted cities right now
- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - AQI 946 (PM2.5 99.4 μg/m³)
- Jakarta, Indonesia - AQI 189 (PM2.5 58.7 μg/m³)
- Bandung, Indonesia - AQI 187 (PM2.5 57.6 μg/m³)
- Xian, China - AQI 179 (PM2.5 51.2 μg/m³)
- Dubai, UAE - AQI 172 (PM2.5 95.9 μg/m³)
- Dhaka, Bangladesh - AQI 163 (PM2.5 43.9 μg/m³)
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - AQI 161 (PM2.5 45.9 μg/m³)
- Faisalabad, Pakistan - AQI 155 (PM2.5 61 μg/m³)
- Beijing, China - AQI 151 (PM2.5 21.7 μg/m³)
- Lahore, Pakistan - AQI 151 (PM2.5 54.9 μg/m³)
Top 10 cleanest cities right now
- Cali, Colombia - AQI 17 (PM2.5 2.6 μg/m³)
- Philadelphia, United States - AQI 20 (PM2.5 2.2 μg/m³)
- Tallinn, Estonia - AQI 22 (PM2.5 3.1 μg/m³)
- Montreal, Canada - AQI 22 (PM2.5 2.4 μg/m³)
- Christchurch, New Zealand - AQI 22 (PM2.5 3.7 μg/m³)
- Helsinki, Finland - AQI 23 (PM2.5 1.9 μg/m³)
- Novosibirsk, Russia - AQI 23 (PM2.5 1.4 μg/m³)
- Wellington, New Zealand - AQI 23 (PM2.5 0.9 μg/m³)
- San Jose, Costa Rica - AQI 24 (PM2.5 8.1 μg/m³)
- Udon Thani, Thailand - AQI 25 (PM2.5 2.7 μg/m³)
What is AQI?
AQI (Air Quality Index) is a 0-500 scale used by the US EPA. Below 50 is good, above 150 unhealthy, above 300 hazardous. Most damage comes from PM2.5 - fine particles that enter the bloodstream. Learn more: PM2.5 explained.
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Data: live readings refreshed every 30 minutes by atmos.today. See methodology and attribution.