Air quality statistics
An annual update on concentrations of major air pollutants in the UK.
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This publication summarises the concentrations of major air pollutants as measured by the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN). This release covers annual average concentrations in the UK of:
- nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
- particulates (PM2.5)
- particulates (PM10)
- ozone (O3)
The release also covers the number of days when air pollution was 鈥楳oderate鈥� or higher for any one of five pollutants listed below:
- nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
- particulates (PM2.5)
- particulates (PM10)
- ozone (O3)
- sulphur dioxide (SO2)
These statistics are used to monitor progress against the UK鈥檚 reduction targets for concentrations of air pollutants. Improvements in air quality help reduce harm to human health and the environment.
Air quality in the UK is strongly linked to the emissions of air pollutants originating from human activity. For more information on UK emissions data and other information please refer to the air quality and emissions statistics 188体育 page.
The statistics in this publication are based on data from the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) of air quality monitors. The website contains the latest air quality monitoring data for the UK and detailed information about the different monitoring networks that measure air quality. The website also hosts the latest data produced using Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) which is a suite of models that uses both monitoring and emissions data to model concentrations of air pollutants across the whole of the UK. The UK-AIR website also provides air pollution episode updates and information on Local Authority Air Quality Management Areas as well as a number of useful reports.
The monitoring data is continuously reviewed and subject to change when issues are highlighted. This means that the time series for certain statistics may vary slightly from year to year. You can access editions of this publication via The National Archives or the links below.
The datasets associated with this publication can be found here ENV02 - Air quality statistics.
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Defra statistics: Air Quality and Industrial Emissions
Email [email protected]
Updates to this page
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Contact details updated.
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Annual update.
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Figures for 2022 published.
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New addition including 2021 data published.
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Figures for 2020 Published.
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Amendment to text of attachment entitled Summary.
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This publication has been updated to address accessibility issues. Changes include modification of alt text, improvement to the colour contrast of figures, removal of merged cells in tables, and tweaks to formatting such as subscripting and HTML links. Some of the text has been reworded to improve clarity and understanding, but no changes have been made to the statistics since the initial publication in February.
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Figures for 2019 published
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Release including 2018 data published
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Annual figures released
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New release with figures up to 2016 published.
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Annual update.
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new figures for 2014 published
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Annual update to publication.
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First published.
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Air quality statistics - 2012 data published.
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Addition of the Pre-release announcement published February 2013.