Jakarta may have intermittently appeared on the list of cities with the worst air quality in the world, but, on average the Indonesian capital was among the worst cities in Southeast Asia for all of last year, while Indonesia as a country didn鈥檛 do that well either.
As shared by Greenpeace Indonesia recently, Jakarta鈥檚 average AQI (Air Quality Index) in terms of PM 2.5 pollutants (the level of fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in the air) for all of 2018, according to air quality monitoring site AirVisual, was 45.3. While that is not especially high relative to the top range of recorded AQI in Jakarta (higher means more polluted), it鈥檚 still the highest among Southeast Asian cities.
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Jakarta鈥檚 average AQI for 2018 falls under AirVisual鈥檚 鈥淯nhealthy for sensitive groups鈥 category, one below 鈥淯nhealthy鈥. According to Indonesian government standards, PM 2.5 reaches dangerous levels when the reading exceeds 65.
That鈥檚 not to say parts of Jakarta don鈥檛 exceed unhealthy AQI levels. For example, , as of this afternoon, Central Jakarta鈥檚 Kemayoran is showing an AQI of 168, while the city鈥檚 average is 66.
Internationally, . Though it鈥檚 nothing to be proud about, Indonesia is still some ways off from the worst polluter, Bangladesh, which had an average of 97.10. The fact that there have been no extremely major forest fires in Indonesia last year has probably helped (though it鈥檚 important to note that there were forest fires, regardless of what President Joko Widodo said in the last presidential debate).
