Five Indian cities among world's top 10 polluted in 2025
India
India is making headlines for the wrong reasons: five of the world's 10 most polluted cities are here, with Loni, Uttar Pradesh, topping the global list.
Its air quality is 22 times worse than what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
Byrnihat, Meghalaya, Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Ula, West Bengal, also landed in the top 10 for pollution.
Global pollution levels
It's not just India: Pakistan and Bangladesh have some of the dirtiest air too.
Only 14% of cities worldwide met WHO's clean air standards in 2025, down from 17% in 2024.
Shockingly, about 91% of countries exceeded the WHO annual average PM2.5 guideline in 2025.