New global findings show air pollution caused 7.9 million deaths in 2023, surpassing smoking and diet-related risks, and placing the heaviest burden on older adults and low-income countries.
By Bunmi Yekini
Air pollution has become one of the world’s deadliest threats to human health, responsible for 7.9 million deaths in 2023, according to the State of Global Air (SOGA) 2025 report.
The new data confirm that polluted air is now the second leading risk factor for premature death worldwide, after high blood pressure, surpassing risks linked to tobacco use and poor diet.
The report, produced by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) in partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), describes air pollution as a global public health emergency that affects every region and population.
“Air pollution is a public health burden without boundaries,” the report states. “It drifts across borders, seasons, and societies, making people across all walks of life sick, with impacts that ripple through communities, economies, and generations.”
The findings show that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, dementia, and lung cancer, account for 86% of air pollution–related deaths.
This marks a major shift in the global disease landscape, as long-term exposure to polluted air drives chronic illness in every age group.
Fine particulate matter, or PM remains the most dangerous pollutant, causing 4.9 million deaths in 2023. These particles are small enough to enter the bloodstream and damage the heart, lungs, and other organs.
The report also highlights household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels such as charcoal and wood as another major threat, responsible for 2.8 million deaths, many among women and children.
Meanwhile, ozone exposure contributed to an additional 470,000 deaths from chronic respiratory diseases.
Air pollution’s burden increases sharply with age.
The SOGA 2025 report found that over five million deaths among people aged 70 and older were linked to polluted air in 2023, making it one of the leading environmental causes of mortality among older adults.
With global life expectancy rising, this trend is expected to intensify unless air quality improves.
The report notes that air pollution not only shortens life expectancy but also worsens health in older populations, increasing their vulnerability to heart attacks, strokes, and respiratory illness.
“The impacts of pollution spikes linger long after the air has cleared,” the report notes. “So too do the impacts from the day-to-day pollution that has remained persistently high in some regions for decades.”
The heaviest toll falls on low- and middle-income countries, which account for more than 90% of pollution-related deaths.
South Asia remains the world’s most polluted region, with Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal recording the highest average concentrations of fine particulate matter.
In sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, air pollution remains a growing challenge due to rapid urbanization, open burning, and reliance on biomass fuels.
The global death rate from air pollution was 195 deaths per 100,000 people in South Asia and 137 per 100,000 in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to far lower rates in high-income regions.
The report warns that these disparities are driven by unequal access to clean energy, industrial regulation, and healthcare infrastructure.
For the first time, the SOGA 2025 report includes new evidence linking air pollution to dementia, estimating 626,000 deaths and 11.6 million years of healthy life lost in 2023 due to pollution-related cognitive decline.
This breakthrough finding expands the known impacts of air pollution beyond heart and lung diseases to include brain health and aging.
The report states that this growing body of evidence “adds to the urgency of addressing air pollution exposure as a modifiable risk factor across all stages of life.”
Beyond its human cost, air pollution carries enormous economic consequences.
The report estimates that pollution-related disease and premature death cost the global economy between 4.7% and 6.5% of GDP in 2020.
In countries with aging populations and high healthcare demands, this burden threatens to undermine growth and social stability. It describes air pollution as “an invisible tax on development” that limits productivity, drives up medical spending, and deepens inequality.
Despite the global scale of the crisis, there are signs of improvement where governments have acted decisively, citing new or strengthened air quality standards in the United States, the European Union, Brazil, and Uganda, and measurable reductions in air pollution levels in parts of China and India following targeted clean-energy policies.
Efforts such as China’s Clean Heating Program, India’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution initiative, and Ecuador’s national clean cooking transition demonstrate that progress is achievable when political will and community engagement align.
At the World Health Assembly in 2025, countries endorsed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global roadmap to cut deaths from anthropogenic air pollution by half by 2040.
The roadmap calls for stronger emission standards, wider access to clean household energy, improved air quality monitoring, and health system preparedness.
The State of Global Air 2025 concludes with a clear message: “Air pollution is not just an environmental issue. It is a matter of human survival.”