Air quality by country
Air quality in Afghanistan today
Updated
Good: average US AQI 47 across 5 cities Worst now: Kabul (70); cleanest: Herāt (25).
Live US AQI, PM2.5 and ozone for cities across Afghanistan, ranked from most polluted to cleanest.
- Average US AQI
- 47 Good
- Most polluted now
- Kabul AQI 70
- Cleanest now
- Herāt AQI 25
- Cities above 100
- 0 unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse
Air quality in Afghanistan today
Right now the modelled air quality in Afghanistan averages a US AQI of 47 (Good) across the 5 cities we track. By category: 4 Good, 1 Moderate (of 5).
That is 19 points better than the worldwide average of 66 across 3,556 cities.
Kabul has the worst air at 70 with PM2.5 at 31 µg/m³, while Herāt is cleanest at 25. No tracked city is above 100, the level where sensitive groups are advised to cut back outdoors.
Afghanistan cities by AQI (most polluted first)
| City | Region | US AQI | Category | PM2.5 µg/m³ | Ozone µg/m³ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kabul | Kabul | 70 | Moderate | 31.3 | 63 |
| Kandahār | Kandahar | 50 | Good | 7.2 | 42 |
| Mazār-e Sharīf | Balkh | 45 | Good | 8.3 | 59 |
| Balkh | Balkh | 45 | Good | 8.3 | 59 |
| Herāt | Herat | 25 | Good | 4.6 | 33 |
What the US AQI numbers mean
| US AQI | Category | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0-50 | Good | Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk; a good time for outdoor activity. |
| 51-100 | Moderate | Acceptable for most people. Unusually sensitive people should consider shortening long or heavy exertion outdoors. |
| 101-150 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | People with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens should cut back on prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors. |
| 151-200 | Unhealthy | Everyone should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors; sensitive groups should avoid it and keep windows closed. |
| 201-300 | Very Unhealthy | Health alert: everyone should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors, and sensitive groups should stay indoors. |
| 301-500 | Hazardous | Emergency conditions: everyone should avoid all outdoor physical activity and stay indoors with filtered air if possible. The scale tops out at 500; heavier dust or smoke is shown as 500. |
Modelled by CAMS (Copernicus) via Open-Meteo, refreshed twice a day; read hour by hour from the forecast.
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Data: Open-Meteo Air Quality API, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).