The air
The finest dust and smoke — particles small enough to reach deep into the lungs — measured from orbit across Iraq for more than a quarter of a century. Dust from the desert, smoke from generators, traffic, refineries and the flares, all at once.
33.2µg/m³
of fine particles (PM2.5) in the air the average Iraqi breathed in 2024: 6.6 times the World Health Organization’s guideline of 5. Iraq had the 19th most polluted air of 246 countries and territories. The dataset finds no Iraqi living where the air meets the guideline.
Every year since 1998
The air Iraqis breathe, year by year, against the WHO guideline. It was worst in 2008, at 44.1; it has never come close to 5.
City by city
In 2024, Basra had the dirtiest air of the eight cities: 47.2 µg/m³, 9.4 times the guideline. The cleanest, Ramadi, was still 5.4 times over it.
Each city is the average of the satellite grid within about 15 km of its centre. The map shows every year; pick one in its stripes.
Month by month
The air is often worst in two seasons: spring and early summer, when dust storms blow in from the desert, and winter, when cold, still nights trap the smoke of generators and traffic over the cities. The dirtiest month in the record below: Mosul, June 2024, at 81 µg/m³.
Basra and the flares
Basra sits among the oil fields. 54% of the gas Iraq flared in 2025 burned within 100 km of the city. The flares are one source among many — dust, refineries, generators, ships and traffic — and the satellites measure them all together, so no one can say from these figures how much of Basra’s air is theirs. Burned, not used →
HOW THESE NUMBERS ARE MADE
- Fine particles — Washington University in St. Louis’s SatPM2.5 (V6GL03): satellite measurements of haze combined with a chemical model, then calibrated against ground monitors around the world. Published once a year. The dataset ↗ The series →
- Iraq’s figure — weighted by where people live, as the dataset publishes it for every country; the rank is among every country in that table.
- Cities — the mean of the 0.1° grid (about 11 km) within about 15 km of each centre; months for the newest three complete years.
- The guideline — 5 µg/m³ as a yearly average. WHO Air Quality Guidelines (2021) ↗