Today's society is experiencing an unprecedented awakening to the climate emergency. And yet, things are not moving as fast as they should. Among the important indicators for monitoring global pollution, there is one that is relatively simple to understand: air quality.
According to the WHO (World Health Organization) every year 7 million people die because of air pollution and billions of humans suffer the consequences of poor air quality. That is why in recent years, more and more cities around the world are monitoring their air quality and more and more governments and organizations are providing data on this indicator.
So for know the air quality in your city or anywhere else in the world, there is a website specially designed for this purpose: IQ Air.
IQAir, the bible of air quality
More than just an information and awareness site, IQAir operates the largest free real-time information platform on air quality. The site therefore brings together a whole series of tools dedicated to the air we breathe!
So, the main tool of this site allows you to know the air quality of your city. On the home page of the site, a field allows you to search for a country, city or position in order to return air quality information for a given location.
No need to be an expert because the data is represented visually. The lower the number, the better the AQI (Air Quality Index). This quality is also represented by a color code ranging from green (good) to red (bad).
Air quality of a city
If you search for a city, you will end up on a page dedicated to that city (logical). On this page you will discover a gold mine of information and indicators.
First of all, you will be able to know the IQA of your city. This figure representing the live air quality is accompanied by a colored banner but also a qualitative scale (Good, Average, Bad for sensitive people, Bad for health, Very bad for health, Dangerous).
This IQA is supplemented by other indicators such as PM2.5, PME10, Ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2). These are indicators for measuring pollution and the concentration of fine particles in the air.
The site also displays one-week forecasts on the evolution of the IQA according to the weather, the direction and strength of the wind...
Finally, a last graph allows you to find the history of all these indicators over a month!
Air quality of a country or region
By searching for a country or region, you will be able to obtain a lot of information on an area larger than a city. The site will thus display the area on a interactive map full of information.
Among this information, the site displays colored circles that indicate the air quality in major cities, flame icons that show ongoing fires, color ranges for air quality and prevailing winds.
Along with the map there are also tables showing the ranking of cities with the worst and best performers in real time.
Scrolling down the page, you will find the main contributors to the data displayed for the country as well as the main data sources used.
IQAir AirVisual, a smartphone application
Beyond a very comprehensive site on air quality issues, IQAir is also a mobile application.
This free, ad-free application includes most of the information available on IQAir… and more! It has the advantage of having a less cluttered interface than the website!
IQAir AirVisual is available on theApp Store and Google Play.
In short, IQAir is a really comprehensive site (and app) for understanding and apprehending all the issues surrounding the quality of the air around us and being informed in real time of the quality of what we breathe!
If this topic interests you, don't hesitate to also consult this interactive map which allows you to know theorigin of electricity consumed in each country and its CO2 emissions.
Article updated on January 10, 2025 by Byothe
