More than 90 per cent of the UK’s population breathe highly polluted air on a daily basis, the World Health Organisation has revealed.

Using data from satellite measurements, air transport models and ground-level monitors, the organisation and the University of Bath developed a model that showed air pollution levels for more than 3,000 locations in 103 countries around the world.


The results show that nine out of ten people (92 per cent) on Earth live in places where air pollution is higher than acceptable limits – even when they are outside.



You can explore the interactive map here

The health risks of breathing in polluted air include respiratory and cardiovascular disease, strokes, lung cancer and other astute breathing problems. This, the study says, resulted in 16,335 deaths in the UK in 2012.

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A breakdown of the deaths says 7,300 were from ischaemic heart disease, 5,000 from lung disease and 3,700 from strokes. The rest of the deaths were a combination of other lung and respiratory diseases.

The vast majority of the UK's 64.1 million population are at risk from air pollution-related diseases. In total, the research highlighted 90 per cent of the country’s outdoors having pollution levels higher than recommended guidelines.


"It gives a comprehensive look at the levels of particular matter in the UK, in relation to the WHO limits," Gavin Shaddick from the University of Bath told WIRED.

"It's not just London and the major cities but actually urban areas and rural areas as well. You have got to be in a pretty distant location to find areas that are consistently less than the limit. I think to see so much of the UK having levels of air pollution that are above the limit is probably quite revealing."

92% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed WHO limits World Health Organisation

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WHO officials say outdoor pollution should not be higher than 10 micrograms per cubic metre. Unsurprisingly, major UK cities including London, Manchester, and Birmingham suffer from the highest levels of air pollution – with some areas having levels between 16-17 micrograms of pollution per cubic metre. Oxford Street has previously been named as the most polluted street in the UK.


The model created by the researchers focuses on ultra-fine particles in the air, which have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres. These particles include sulphate, nitrates, and black carbon, and due to their size are able to pass into the lungs. The fine particles are created from transport, household fuel and waste burning, coal power plants and more.

Across the world, similarly depressing levels of air pollution were reported by the WHO. “According to the latest urban air quality database, 98 per cent of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines,” it said as the research was published.

The data, from 2012, shows that there were an estimated 6.5 million deaths around the world linked to air pollution.

"Air pollution continues to take a toll on the health of the most vulnerable populations – women, children and the older adults," Flavia Bustreo, assistant director general at WHO said.

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"We created a model to combine all the data sources. We take the information from the satellites, the chemical transport model, we combine that with the monitoring data from each level," Shaddick added.

Shaddick says that North America, the UK and other developed countries have a large number of monitoring stations, but other places in the world do not. If a country only has two monitoring sites, he says, information from surrounding areas is borrowed to build-up an accurate picture. This is most common across South America and Africa.

"Computation is fairly extensive. We ran this on a high-performance computing system, which cost £1 million,' he continued. "That produces estimates for almost every 10km by 10km cell, it produces not just an estimate for the PM 2.5 particles but the entire distribution."

Going forward Shaddick says higher resolution maps can be produced in the future. "Ultimately we could have a map where we could look at individual cities and areas around cities," he says.

What is fine air pollution?

"Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health," the WHO says. By lowering levels of air pollution it is possible to improve the overall health of people around the world.

The work in the study by the WHO and University of Bath focusses on PM 2.5 particles. These are fine particles that both reduce visibility and cause the air to look hazy. "The term fine particles, or particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), refers to tiny particles or droplets in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width," the New York State department says.


The UK government says these tiny particles can be created by both human-made or also naturally occurring – these can include ash and sea-spray.

However, most commonly they are man-made. "Particulate matter (including soot) is emitted during the combustion of solid and liquid fuels, such as for power generation, domestic heating and in vehicle engines," the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs says.

To remove the number of particles in the UK, the government plans to remove the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air.