A recent World Air Quality Report by IQAir provides a global review of air quality data for the year 2023. It compiles PM2.5 air quality data from 7,812 cities across 134 countries, regions, and territories. The report gathers information from over 30,000 air quality monitoring stations. In 2023, 10 out of the reporting 134 countries and regions succeeded in achieving the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline value of 5 μg/m3. much more work remains to be done to combat air pollution. The report revealed a concerning disparity: the scarcity of monitoring stations in countries across Africa, South America, and the Middle East, leading to a shortage of air quality data in those regions. Although Africa saw an improvement in the number of countries included in this year’s report compared with previous years the continent largely remains the most underrepresented. The African nations of Chad and Sudan are notably absent in 2023 due to a lack of publicly available monitoring data. According to IQAir, only 24 of 54 African countries had sufficient data available from their monitoring stations.
Scarcity of Monitoring Stations across Africa Means Underrepresentation in Air Quality Data
