Delhi residents are losing 8.2 years of their life expectancy to high PM 2.5 concentration in the city, a new report released on Thursday said, underlining that this loss could be mitigated by bringing down pollution levels to the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 5 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3). The loss is 4.7 years as per the national standard of 40µg/m3, it said. The average Indian is losing 3.5 years of their life expectancy, said the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI).

The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)’s 2025 report is based on an analysis of pollution data from 2023. Delhi’s annual PM 2.5 concentration in 2023 was 88.4µg/m3. It was 41µg/m3 for the entire country. The report cited the latest satellite-derived PM2.5 estimates in 2023 and said particulate concentrations in India were higher than in 2022. “These levels are more than 8 times higher than the WHO guideline, and reducing them to permanently meet the WHO Guideline would add 3.5 years to the average life expectancy of Indians,” said the report. It added that people of Delhi were the worst impacted across the country.