These Canadian cities rank among the most polluted in the world

Jul 13 2026, 9:21 pm

Looks like several cities in Canada have some work to do when it comes to dealing with pollution.

IQAir provides real-time air quality data from over 80,000 monitoring sensors worldwide.

As of 12 p.m. on Monday, two Canadian cities rank among the top 50 most polluted in the world.

cities

Elena Berd/Shutterstock

Toronto is in 22nd place with an AQI of 81, which, according to IQAir, is a moderate level of pollution. It ties with Cairo, Egypt, and Doha, Qatar, and sits just above Singapore.

Montreal follows closely behind in 34th place with an AQI of 68, which is also a moderate level of pollution.

The top three most polluted cities in the world are Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. They all have AQI between 160 and 183, which is considered unhealthy on IQAir’s scale.

Only one Canadian city cracked the top five for the cleanest destinations around the world.

As of 12 p.m., Vancouver sits in fourth place among the cleanest cities in the world with an AQI of 15. According to IQ Air, a score of 0 to 50 is considered good air quality.

Melbourne, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; and Sydney, Australia, round out the top three for cleanest air quality around the world.

Last week, Metro Vancouver issued an air quality warning due to wildfire smoke.

Check out IQAir’s full live air quality rankings.

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