BATHINDA: Two towns in Punjab apart from Chandigarh have ranked below 100 in the most polluted cities across the world as per its annual average particulate matter (PM2.5) in 2025. BATHINDA: Mandi Gobindgarh has been found to be most polluted in the state, which has been ranked 44 across the world with its annual average PM2.5 of 60 µg/m³ in 2025, which has been recorded down from 78.4 µg/m³ in 2024.Chandigarh has ranked at 57 with annual PM2.5 at 54.3 µg/m but down from 69.7 µg/m³ in 2024. Ludhiana has turned out to be third most polluted city in the area with rank of 66 and annual average PM 2.5 at 52.8 µg/m³ down from 60.8 µg/m³ in 2024. The rankings were released on Tuesday by IQ Air, a Swiss air quality technology company, considered as most reliable. The ranking for 9446 cities from 143 countries have been released. As per World Health Organization (WHO) annual PM2.5 of 5 µg/m³ is considered as the safe limit.Apart from these three cities, four cities from Punjab were ranked between 100-200 as Amritsar has been ranked at 101 with PM2.5 at 46.6 µg/m³ down from 57.3 µg/m³ in 2024, Khanna has been ranked at 104 with PM2.5 at 46.4 µg/m³ down from 49.7 µg/m³ in 2024, Jalandhar has ranked at 117 with annual PM 2.5 at 45.1 µg/m³ in 2025 down from 48.6 µg/m³ in 2024. Patiala ranked at 172 with annual PM2.5 at 41.3 µg/m³ in 2025, down from 48.0 µg/m³ in 2024.Roopnagar was ranked at 219 with the annual PM2.5 at 39.2 µg/m³ in 2025, down from 48.4 µg/m³ in 2024. Bathinda ranked at 310, with annual PM2.5 at 35.9 µg/m³ in 2025 up from 35.6 in 2024. IQAir released its 8th annual World Air Quality Report, offering a comprehensive analysis of global air pollution data from 2025 and highlighting persistent health risks, emerging regional trends and critical monitoring gaps worldwide.Loni in India was recorded the most polluted city, recording an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 112.5 µg/m³, more than 22 times the WHO guideline. World’s 25 most polluted cities were all located in India, Pakistan and China, with India home to three of the four most polluted.Comparing this year’s report to the previous year, 54 countries experienced increases in annual average PM2.5, 75 saw declines, two remained unchanged and 12 were newly represented in this year’s dataset.
