Air Numbers, Real Lives: Why “City vs City” AQI Comparisons Get Messier in 2026

• admin
• January 1, 2026
• Energy & Environment
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Key highlights

• Snapshot (CPCB, 24 Dec 2025 @ 4 PM, 24-hr average): Delhi 271 (Poor, PM2.5; 39/40 stations); Mumbai 86 (Satisfactory; SO2/PM10; 22/30); Kolkata 197 (Moderate, PM2.5; 6/7); Chennai 146 (Moderate, PM2.5; 7/9); Pune 155 (Moderate, PM2.5; 8/13); Ahmedabad 128 (Moderate; PM2.5/PM10; 8/9); Agra 118 (Moderate; PM2.5/PM10; 6/6). CPCB+5CPCB+5CPCB+5
• AQI “rankings” look definitive, but station coverage and reporting completeness quietly decide what gets compared—and what gets left out. Air Quality CPCB+3CPCB+3CPCB+3
• Official open-data notes are blunt: live field readings are automated and may show abnormal values during episodes or instrument issues—meaning the number can be true and noisy. Data.gov.in

Every winter, India’s air becomes a scoreboard—and the temptation is to declare winners and losers. But AQI isn’t a cricket table. It’s a stitched-together picture from monitoring stations, and the stitching shows.

Start with what the government itself signals. CPCB’s AQI interfaces can throw up messages like “Insufficient data for computing AQI”—not as drama, but as a reminder that a city’s “AQI” is only as sturdy as the data coming in. Air Quality CPCB On the open-data side, the official note is even more candid: the readings are displayed live without human intervention, and abnormal values can appear because of episodes or instrument error. Data.gov.in

That’s why “City A is worse than City B” needs grown-up footnotes in 2026:

• How many stations are reporting right now? Delhi’s 39/40 is not the same kind of confidence as a city running on a thinner set. CPCB
• Are you looking at an average or a hotspot? Even CPCB’s Delhi–NCR page warns that averaging across many locations is a simplification, not a scientifically perfect comparison. Air Quality CPCB
• Which pollutant is driving the headline? On 24 Dec 2025, PM2.5 dominated several big-city readings—useful for health decisions, but also a cue that weather and local sources can swing the story fast. CPCB+3CPCB+3CPCB+3

If there’s a sober takeaway for readers: use AQI to change behaviour and reduce exposure, not to dunk on other cities. The data is real—but it’s not always equally complete.

Official source (CPCB AQI Bulletin): https://cpcb.nic.in/aqi_report.php