Swiss air quality technology company IQAir has released the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report, which reveals details of the world’s most polluted countries, territories, and regions in 2023. For this year’s report, data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,812 locations in 134 countries, territories, and regions was analyzed by the company’s air quality scientists. According to the Report, Nieuwoudtville in the Namakwa District Municipality in the Northern Cape is not only the city with the cleanest air (PM2.5* concentration 2.1µg/m³) in South Africa, but also on the African continent. The town of Botrivier/Bot River (2.8µg/m³), situated in the Overberg Region of the Western Cape, comes in second followed by Lichtenburg (5.1µg/m³)in the North West Province and Cape Town (5.9µg/m³) in the Western Cape.
On the downside, two cities in South Africa are the most polluted regional cities on the African continent. Benoni (54.9 µg/m³) in Gauteng is Africa's and South Africa's city with the worst air quality, followed by Bloemfontein (49.4 µg/m³) in the Free State.
The air quality in South Africa as a whole has improved significantly from 2022. The country’s annual average PM2.5 concentration showed a 14.8% decrease going from 23.4µg/m³ in 2022 to 19.9µg/m³ in 2023. The towns of Nieuwoudtville and Botrivier/Bot River met the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual PM2.5 guideline of having an annual average PM2.5 concentration at or below 5µg/m³.Cape Town met these requirements for four months but reported an annual average concentration of 5.9µg/m³ for the entire year.
Please note: Only 24 out of 54 countries in Africa had sufficient data available to be included in the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report, leaving 30 countries unaccounted for.
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