Cleanest city in Pakistan: what the air quality and sanitation data shows

We found no official ranking of Pakistan’s cleanest city, so the answer depends on what you measure. For air, IQAir names Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Pakistan’s 2025 cleanest city, at AQI 99, and Faisalabad as the most polluted. Air quality in Lahore is the one most people search for: it is worst from October to February, and EPA Punjab’s live dashboard showed Lahore at AQI 180 on the morning of 16 October 2026, the worst in Punjab.

Which is the cleanest city in Pakistan in 2025?

For air, Haripur. IQAir, a Swiss company that collects readings from air monitors, labels Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “2025 Pakistan cleanest city”, with a US AQI figure of 99. The page doesn’t say whether 99 is a yearly average, so treat it as IQAir’s label, not an official ranking.

Pakistan as a whole averaged 67.3 µg/m³ of PM2.5 in 2025, the fine dust that reaches deep into the lungs. The World Health Organization’s guideline is no more than 5 µg/m³, so Pakistan’s average is about 13 times the guideline.

There is no official national cleanliness ranking that covers streets, waste and water as well as air. We searched for one and found none published online as of October 2026.

What does “cleanest” mean in this guide?

We use two kinds of data:

• Air quality. Measured by monitors, reported as PM2.5 in µg/m³ or as an AQI number from 0 to 500. Higher is worse. This is the best data available, from EPA Punjab, Pak-EPA and IQAir.
• Sanitation. Waste collection and street cleaning. Only Punjab publishes a ranking, under its “Suthra Punjab” programme.

Which is the most polluted city in Pakistan?

Faisalabad. The Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26, citing IQAir’s 2025 World Air Quality Report, says Faisalabad had the highest average PM2.5 in the country in 2025, at 98.8 µg/m³. IQAir’s own page lists Faisalabad as the “2025 Pakistan most polluted city” at AQI 181.

The same survey says Pakistan had four of the world’s ten most polluted cities in 2025, and 13 Pakistani cities had PM2.5 above 50 µg/m³. It blames industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, brick kilns and construction dust, and says air pollution causes almost 22,000 deaths a year.

Pakistan’s average fell from 73.7 µg/m³ in 2024 to 67.3 in 2025, but it was still the most polluted country in IQAir’s report. That report used data from 9,446 cities in 143 countries and territories, and was published on 24 March 2026.

How bad is air quality in Lahore?

Worst for about five months a year. IQAir says Lahore’s air usually worsens from October to February, when crop residue is burnt and cold air traps smoke near the ground. IQAir says Lahore regularly tops its live ranking of the world’s major cities.

On 16 October 2026, early in this year’s season, EPA Punjab’s dashboard showed Lahore at AQI 180, “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, up from 100 at the same hour the day before. IQAir showed 183 that morning, with PM2.5 at 101 µg/m³.

What was Lahore’s worst AQI?

In November 2024 the smog was so heavy that Punjab closed schools and colleges in 18 districts, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala, from 7 to 17 November. Heavy vehicles were banned from Lahore from 8 November 2024 to 31 January 2025, half of all offices worked from home, and hospitals reported 900 smog-related respiratory and throat cases.

Did Lahore’s air get better in 2025?

Somewhat, but it was still very poor. The figures come from different datasets, so they don’t match exactly:

• Punjab government (December 2025): citing the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, it said Lahore’s daily PM2.5 peaks in November 2025 fell 56%, to 237 µg/m³, from 539 µg/m³ in November 2024. The monthly average fell 37% and pollution so far that year was down 15.6%. The release says favourable weather helped.
• Economic Survey 2025-26: it credits Punjab’s measures with a 13% fall in Lahore’s PM2.5 in IQAir’s 2025 report.
• Independent readings: IQAir showed Lahore at AQI 509, “hazardous”, early one morning in late November 2025, the most polluted city in the world that morning. The News reported a November 2025 monthly average of 181 µg/m³; every one of the month’s 30 days was above Punjab’s limit of 35 µg/m³.

The Punjab government said 2025 was the first year with no hazardous-level smog in the province. Dawn reported the claim without the underlying data, and the IQAir reading of 509 that same week sits in the hazardous band. We report both and don’t take a side.

Is Islamabad’s air quality better than Lahore’s?

Usually, yes, in live readings. On IQAir’s Pakistan ranking on 16 October 2026, Islamabad was at 95 and Lahore at 183. Rawalpindi, next door, was 122 on EPA Punjab’s dashboard that morning.

Islamabad is measured far less than Lahore, though. As of October 2025 the capital had one official air quality station, in Sector H-8, according to the CDA, with more planned. Pak-EPA also uses a mobile station and low-cost sensors.

Islamabad isn’t smog-free. In late October 2024 Pak-EPA readings showed PM2.5 of 55 to 67 µg/m³, which it rated “moderate”, and the climate change ministry said the air had worsened significantly since mid-October. In October 2025 the CDA banned open waste burning and gave brick kilns until 20 October 2025 to switch to cleaner zig-zag technology.

What about Karachi’s air quality?

Karachi’s yearly averages used to be well below Lahore’s, but its air got worse in late 2025. The Economic Survey 2025-26 says PM2.5 in Karachi in November 2025 was nearly 57% higher than in November 2024. On 16 October 2026 IQAir showed Karachi at 162, worse than Islamabad and close to Lahore.

IQAir’s older yearly figures show the gap that used to exist. In 2019 Karachi averaged 40.2 µg/m³ of PM2.5 and Lahore 89.5 µg/m³. We couldn’t open IQAir’s 2025 figures for either city, so we don’t quote them.

These are one-hour readings from one day (EPA Punjab at 8am, IQAir between 8am and 1pm), not averages. The two networks also disagree: Sialkot was 30 on EPA Punjab’s dashboard and 84 on IQAir that day, because they use different monitors.

Which is the cleanest city in Punjab?

For street cleaning, Bhowana tehsil in Chiniot district. A mid-year review by Punjab’s Local Government Department, reported on 30 May 2025, ranked Bhowana first of 132 tehsils. Jalalpur Pirwala in Multan district came second and Bahawalnagar third.

The review scored sanitation standards, how well the cleaning operation ran and how quickly complaints were resolved. 26 tehsils scored above 90%, and seven of them were in Faisalabad Division.

The ranking is part of Suthra Punjab, the province’s waste management programme, which Punjab launched internationally at the COP30 climate conference. We found no newer ranking as of October 2026.

For air, Punjab’s cleanest readings change by the hour. On the morning of 16 October 2026, Chiniot (18), Sialkot (30) and Mianwali (37) had the lowest AQI on EPA Punjab’s dashboard, out of 32 cities listed.

How do I check the air quality in Lahore today?

Punjab’s monitoring network has grown fast, so station counts differ by date. EPA Punjab said 41 stations in 18 districts in December 2025. The Economic Survey 2025-26 gives 46 stations in 18 districts in one place, and growth from 3 to 51 stations, with a target of 100 by April 2026, in another.

When should you visit Lahore for cleaner air?

Outside October to February, if air quality matters to you, based on IQAir’s account of the smog season. If you must visit in winter, check the dashboard each morning, and remember that schools and offices may close at short notice, as they did in November 2024.

Spring isn’t fully clear either. The Economic Survey says PM2.5 across Pakistan rose in April and May 2025 because of dust storms.

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