Cities reporting air quality, India | India Health Observatory

Cities reporting air quality, India

Name: Cities reporting air quality, India
Creator: Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
License: https://data.gov.in/government-open-data-license-india

The number of cities in the geography that appear with an AQI in CPCB's daily AQI bulletin.

252cities

3 October 2026

Unchanged from 252 in 2 October 2026

Derived figure

Published in: CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 3 October 2026 (252 cities)
Where in the document: AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 252 city rows — every row in the table
Evidence: Archived file Original URL Method
First seen by the observatory: 3 Oct 2026. Fetched directly from the publisher.

100

200

300

States and union territories

3 October 2026. 30 reporting

Every state's value for the latest period any state reported, highest first.

010203040

Maharashtra

Rajasthan

Uttar Pradesh

History

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Every value, newest first. Each figure opens the release it was read from.

Period	India	Status	Where in the document
3 October 2026	252	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 252 city rows — every row in the table
2 October 2026	252	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 252 city rows — every row in the table
1 October 2026	247	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 247 city rows — every row in the table
30 September 2026	255	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 255 city rows — every row in the table
29 September 2026	252	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–13: count of all 252 city rows — every row in the table
28 September 2026	238	Derived	AQI bulletin p.1–12: count of all 238 city rows — every row in the table
27 September 2026	235

Definition and method

The number of cities in the geography that appear with an AQI in CPCB's daily AQI bulletin.

Methodology

Source: CPCB's daily National Air Quality Index bulletin. IHO counts the city rows in the bulletin's table that the crosswalk places in the geography; the India figure counts every row. Cities CPCB lists as absent for insufficient data are not counted. This is a coverage measure that qualifies the other three air-quality indicators, not a measure of air quality.

Caveats

A fall usually means stations were down or data were incomplete, not that monitoring was withdrawn. The bulletin printed only cities with continuous stations: about 10 in 2015, about 100 in 2020 and about 250–270 in 2024–26. Rows printed only as 'Aurangabad' from 18 July 2021 on cannot be placed in Bihar or Maharashtra; they count towards India only.

Comparability

Rises over time with network expansion; compare across years only as a description of coverage.

How signals are computed from this series: methodology.

Unit: cities
Direction: Neither direction is better in itself
Cadence: Daily
Publisher: Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Website
Licence: Government Open Data License – India (GODL)
Indicator id: cities-reporting-aqi

Revisions

Government figures are revised. Earlier values are kept, never silently overwritten.

No value in this series has been revised since the observatory first archived it.

Source releases

The government publications this series was read from.

CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 15 November 2023 (248 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026File
CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 12 April 2021 (125 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026File
CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 13 April 2021 (123 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026File
CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 15 April 2021 (126 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026File
CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 14 April 2021 (124 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026File
CPCB National Air Quality Index bulletin, 16 April 2021 (129 cities)PublishedSeen 3 Oct 2026

Cite this

India Health Observatory (2026). Cities reporting air quality, India, 12 April 2021 to 3 October 2026 [dataset]. Original data: Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, CPCB air quality. https://indiahealthobservatory.com/india/cities-reporting-aqi

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