Days of moderate or higher air pollution, UK
The average number of days a year on which a UK monitoring site recorded air pollution at 'moderate' or higher on the Daily Air Quality Index, at urban and rural sites, since 2010.
Days per urban site
11.8 days
2025
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:44 UTC- Urban sites
- Rural sites
Source: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
16 periods, newest first
| Period | Urban sites | Rural sites |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11.8 days | 18.9 days |
| 2024 | 6.2 days | 11.0 days |
| 2023 | 8.6 days | 18.6 days |
| 2022 | 9.3 days | 20.5 days |
| 2021 | 4.4 days | 11.8 days |
| 2020 | 9.9 days | 20.9 days |
| 2019 | 12.1 days | 18.8 days |
| 2018 | 8.9 days | 25.8 days |
| 2017 | 7.6 days | 8.8 days |
| 2016 | 8.8 days | 11.4 days |
| 2015 | 10.2 days | 11.1 days |
| 2014 | 12.9 days | 10.0 days |
| 2013 | 15.2 days | 17.1 days |
| 2012 | 18.2 days | 13.1 days |
| 2011 | 23.6 days | 16.2 days |
| 2010 | 15.6 days | 9.8 days |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env02-air-quality-statistics
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 30 October 2026, 11:41 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistical-data-sets/env02-air-quality-statisticsSHA-256 0060068b62aec8d0272d85053a77ed9c97e518784cad1149b280fa21d972e258 · 89,218 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3b9a5dd52550a19950f2d9/fig17_urban_days_above_moderate.csvSHA-256 b99da64cb42904dce13fccc5b42b5a369016dd4373784bdc29be9239346166f6 · 868 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:44 UTC Run at 30 October 2026, 11:44 UTC; 32 of 32 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-30T11:41:24Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 32 of 32 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 32 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 32 of 32 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2025 ended 303 days before retrieval (limit 560), from Figure 17: Mean number of days per urban site when air pollution was ‘Moderate’ or higher in the UK, 2010 to 2025 |
| Pass | Detailed site data agrees | 32 of 32 figures match the 'All sites (mean)' rows of tables 5.1a and 5.1b in https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3b9c24da47783d877238d0/Air_Pollution_Episodes_2025.ods, to 9 decimal places |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env02-air-quality-statistics – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- A day counts when any of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, PM2.5 or PM10 reached band 4 ('moderate') or above on the Daily Air Quality Index at the site; the figure is the mean over the sites measured that year. Ozone, which peaks in sunny summers, accounts for most rural days.