Bahamas ranked least polluted country of 2024 in the world by IQAir

In a significant development, the Bahamas has been ranked the least polluted country in the world in IQAir’s World Air Quality Report 2024. Reportedly, the island nation is one of the seven nations which met the WHO air quality rules and Nassau was also recognised as the least polluted capital city in the world. 

This data was revealed by IQAir in its 7th edition of annual World Air Quality Report which revealed concerning trends regarding the most polluted nations in the world in 2024. For this report, data from more than 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 nations, territories and regions were checked by IQAir’s team comprising of air quality scientists.  

The list noted that only 17% of global cities meet WHO air pollution guidelines and seven nations met the World Health Organisation’s annual average PM2.5 guideline of 5 µg/m3 including Bahamas, Australia, Barbados, Estonia, Grenada, Iceland as well as New Zealand.  

Notably the five most polluted nations in 2024 were Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and India. Byrnihat in India ranked as the most polluted metropolitan area of the past year while Central and South Asia were home to the seven most polluted cities across the world and India had six of the nine most polluted cities.  

In the United States, the most polluted major city was Los Angeles, California and Ontario being the most polluted city overall. Meanwhile, Seattle in Washington was the cleanest major city in the USA. Also, Mayaguez in Puerto Rico was the cleanest metropolitan area of 2024.  

With the Bahamas ranking as the least polluted country in the world, it becomes the best place to thrive in the Caribbean with the tourism officials looking forward to promoting the island and attract more visitors to the island nation this year.