Cities With the Highest US AQI Right Now

Riyadh has the highest PM2.5-based US Air Quality Index in our major-city sample right now, at about 221.

Updated hourly. Last updated Aug 9, 2026, 11:05:09 AM UTC.

Cities with at least 200,000 residents; 100 cities shown.

Top Cities Ranked by US AQI

#	City	Country	Category	PM2.5	US AQI
🥇	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	Very Unhealthy	145.8 µg/m³	221
=2	Ürümqi	China	Unhealthy	113.4 µg/m³	192
=2	Kuwait City	Kuwait	Unhealthy	113.9 µg/m³	192
🥉	Ürümqi	China	Unhealthy	109.9 µg/m³	189
4	Dubai	United Arab Emirates	Unhealthy	86.6 µg/m³	173
5	Dammam	Saudi Arabia	Unhealthy	81.7 µg/m³	169
6	Bandung	Indonesia	Unhealthy	75.7 µg/m³	165
7	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	Unhealthy	61.0 µg/m³	155
8	Doha	Qatar	Unhealthy	57.6 µg/m³	152
9	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	55.2 µg/m³	150
10	Mecca	Saudi Arabia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	53.3 µg/m³	145
11	Palembang	Indonesia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	52.3 µg/m³	142
12	Hanoi	Vietnam	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	51.6 µg/m³	141
13	Sharjah	United Arab Emirates	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	51.1 µg/m³	139
=14	Jakarta	Indonesia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	46.6 µg/m³	128
=14	Bekasi	Indonesia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	46.6 µg/m³	128
=14	Depok	Indonesia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	46.6 µg/m³	128
=14	South Tangerang	Indonesia	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	46.6 µg/m³	128
15	Multan	Pakistan	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	46.2 µg/m³	127
=16	Guangzhou	China	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	43.7 µg/m³	121
=16	Foshan	China	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	43.7 µg/m³	121
17	Delhi	India	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.8 µg/m³	119
=18	Shenzhen	China	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.5 µg/m³	118
=18	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.5 µg/m³	118
=18	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.5 µg/m³	118
=18	Kowloon	Hong Kong	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.5 µg/m³	118
=18	Kananga	Democratic Republic of Congo	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	42.3 µg/m³	118
=19	Al Başrah al Qadīmah	Iraq	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	41.4 µg/m³	116
=19	Basrah	Iraq	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	41.4 µg/m³	116
20	Hyderabad	Pakistan	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	38.9 µg/m³	109
=21	Zhuhai	China	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	38.5 µg/m³	108
=21	Mbuji-Mayi	Democratic Republic of Congo	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	38.2 µg/m³	108
22	Najafgarh	India	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	37.6 µg/m³	106
23	Dongguan	China	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	37.3 µg/m³	105
=24	Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of Congo	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	35.6 µg/m³	101
=24	Lahore	Pakistan	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	35.6 µg/m³	101
=24	Brazzaville	Congo	Unhealthy (Sensitive)	35.6 µg/m³	101
=25	Khartoum	Sudan	Moderate	34.9 µg/m³	99
=25	Medan	Indonesia	Moderate	35.0 µg/m³	99
=25	Muscat	Oman	Moderate	34.6 µg/m³	99
26	Medina	Saudi Arabia	Moderate	33.8 µg/m³	97
=27	Semarang	Indonesia	Moderate	32.5 µg/m³	95
=27	Faridabad	India	Moderate	32.6 µg/m³	95
28	Faisalabad	Pakistan	Moderate	30.5 µg/m³	91
=29	Ahmedabad	India	Moderate	29.9 µg/m³	90
=29	Tangshan	China	Moderate	29.9 µg/m³	90
=30	Soweto	South Africa	Moderate	29.3 µg/m³	89
=30	Isfahan	Iran	Moderate	29.6 µg/m³	89
=30	Baoji	China	Moderate	29.6 µg/m³	89
=31	Yinchuan	China	Moderate	29.0 µg/m³	88
=31	Gujranwala	Pakistan	Moderate	28.9 µg/m³	88
=32	Chicago	United States	Moderate	28.5 µg/m³	87
=32	Kaohsiung	Taiwan	Moderate	28.2 µg/m³	87
=32	Meerut	India	Moderate	28.3 µg/m³	87
=33	Rawalpindi	Pakistan	Moderate	28.0 µg/m³	86
=33	Ludhiāna	India	Moderate	27.8 µg/m³	86
=33	Jepara	Indonesia	Moderate	28.0 µg/m³	86
=34	Beijing	China	Moderate	27.2 µg/m³	85
=34	Chengdu	China	Moderate	27.6 µg/m³	85
=34	Shijiazhuang	China	Moderate	27.4 µg/m³	85
=34	Zhongshan	China	Moderate	27.1 µg/m³	85
=34	Jiangmen	China	Moderate	27.1 µg/m³	85
=35	Jeddah	Saudi Arabia	Moderate	27.0 µg/m³	84
=35	Nanning	China	Moderate	26.7 µg/m³	84
=36	Los Angeles	United States	Moderate	26.3 µg/m³	83
=36	Lubumbashi	Democratic Republic of Congo	Moderate	26.1 µg/m³	83
=37	Iztapalapa	Mexico	Moderate	26.0 µg/m³	82
=37	Agra	India	Moderate	25.6 µg/m³	82
=37	Peshawar	Pakistan	Moderate	25.6 µg/m³	82
=38	Karachi	Pakistan	Moderate	25.1 µg/m³	81
=38	Johannesburg	South Africa	Moderate	25.1 µg/m³	81
=38	Almaty	Kazakhstan	Moderate	25.3 µg/m³	81
=39	Kano	Nigeria	Moderate	24.6 µg/m³	80
=39	Maoming	China	Moderate	24.7 µg/m³	80
=39	Shiraz	Iran	Moderate	24.4 µg/m³	80
=39	Jining	China	Moderate	24.4 µg/m³	80
=40	Sana'a	Yemen	Moderate	24.3 µg/m³	79
=40	Sanaa	Yemen	Moderate	24.3 µg/m³	79
=40	Tangerang	Indonesia	Moderate	24.0 µg/m³	79
=40	Zhanjiang	China	Moderate	24.2 µg/m³	79
=41	Tianjin	China	Moderate	23.6 µg/m³	78
=41	Xi’an	China	Moderate	23.5 µg/m³	78
=42	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Moderate	23.2 µg/m³	77
=42	Baotou	China	Moderate	22.8 µg/m³	77
=42	Vadodara	India	Moderate	23.3 µg/m³	77
=42	Bozhou	China	Moderate	22.8 µg/m³	77
=43	Wuhan	China	Moderate	22.3 µg/m³	76
=43	Luanda	Angola	Moderate	22.6 µg/m³	76
=43	Anshan	China	Moderate	22.6 µg/m³	76
44	Yangjiang	China	Moderate	22.1 µg/m³	75
=45	Chongqing	China	Moderate	21.7 µg/m³	74
=45	Kabul	Afghanistan	Moderate	21.7 µg/m³	74
=45	Huizhou	China	Moderate	21.5 µg/m³	74
=45	Phoenix	United States	Moderate	21.2 µg/m³	74
=45	Bhopāl	India	Moderate	21.7 µg/m³	74
=45	Shangqiu	China	Moderate	21.5 µg/m³	74
=46	Shenyang	China	Moderate	20.8 µg/m³	73
=46	Santiago	Chile	Moderate	20.7 µg/m³	73
=46	Surat	India	Moderate	20.8 µg/m³	73
=46	Tai’an	China	Moderate	20.7 µg/m³	73

Methodology: Current pollutant concentrations are sampled from WeatherAPI for up to 400 large cities; US AQI values are calculated from PM2.5 using EPA breakpoints.

Why Is the AQI So High in These Cities?

The US Air Quality Index translates pollutant concentration into a health scale from 0 to 500. This list uses the same PM2.5-based AQI calculation as Time.now's city air-quality pages so the score and health category remain consistent.

Frequently Asked Questions: Cities With the Highest US AQI Right Now

Which city has the highest AQI right now?

Among the major cities we track, Riyadh has the highest current PM2.5-based US AQI at about 221 (as of August 9, 2026).

How is the AQI calculated here?

We convert the current PM2.5 concentration through the US EPA breakpoint scale to produce a comparable 0-to-500 score.

Cities With the Highest US AQI Right Now

Top Cities Ranked by US AQI

Why Is the AQI So High in These Cities?

Frequently Asked Questions: Cities With the Highest US AQI Right Now

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