East Asia & Pacific: PM2.5 air pollution, population exposed to levels exceeding WHO guideline value (% of total)

Key figures

Over five years it is down 1.5 percentage points from 98.39% in 2012. Since 1990 it is down 1.49 percentage points from 98.38% in 1990. The World Bank has no value for 16 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

From 2010 to 2017 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.23 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 82% of the movement over 8 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Percent of population exposed to ambient concentrations of PM2.5 that exceed the WHO guideline value is defined as the portion of a country’s population living in places where mean annual concentrations of PM2.5 are greater than 10 micrograms per cubic meter, the guideline value recommended by the World Health Organization as the lower end of the range of concentrations over which adverse health effects due to PM2.5 exposure have been observed.

Limitations: Pollutant concentrations are sensitive to local conditions, and even monitoring sites in the same city may register different levels. Direct monitoring of PM2.5 is still rare in most parts of the world, and measurement protocols and standards are not the same for all countries. These data should be considered only a general indication of air quality, intended to inform cross-country comparisons of the health risks due to particulate matter pollution. The guideline set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for PM2.5 is that annual mean concentrations should not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic meter, representing the lower range over which adverse health effects have been observed.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 12 values

PM2.5 air pollution, population exposed to levels exceeding WHO guideline value (% of total) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 100% (2017)
• Algeria — 100% (2017)
• Bahrain — 100% (2017)
• Djibouti — 100% (2017)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 100% (2017)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 100% (2017)
• Iraq — 100% (2017)
• Israel

More environment data for East Asia & Pacific

• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 11.32% (2025)
• Rural population — 842.28 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 35.23% (2025)
• Urban population — 1.55 billion (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 64.77% (2025)
• Fossil fuel energy consumption (% of total) — 84.93% (2024)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 113.16 million (2024)
• Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 38.63 million (2024)
• Total fisheries production (metric tons) — 151.79 million (2024)

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Questions people ask

What is East Asia & Pacific's PM2.5 air pollution, population exposed to levels exceeding WHO guideline value (% of total)?

96.89% in 2017, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is down 1.49 percentage points from 98.38% in 1990. The highest value was 98.57% in 2005 and the lowest 96.85% in 2016.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (GBD 2017), Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), uri: https://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-2017, publisher: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), date published: 202112.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator EN.ATM.PM25.MC.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (GBD 2017), Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), uri: https://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-2017, publisher: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), date published: 202112 Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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