Country comparison · 536 cities measured
Egypt vs India Air quality index (AQI) and deforestation
Egypt has cleaner air than India right now: its cities average AQI 127 against 156.
At ground stations alone, which measure rather than estimate, the averages are Egypt 65 (3 cities) and India 169 (207 cities). India has lost more forest since 2001. India has more tree cover in its cities.
Updated . Lower is better on the US EPA index: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous. Measured by Airleaf.
Egypt127India156
Head to head
Egypt vs India at a glance
Egypt is ahead on 5 of 6 measures, and India on 1. The better figure in each row is marked.
| Egypt | India | |
|---|---|---|
| Average air qualityUS AQI, all measured cities. | 127 (better) | 156 |
| At ground stationsCities with a current station reading. | 65 (better) | 169 |
| Cities over AQI 100Not fine for sensitive groups. | 46% (better) | 74% |
| Forest lost since 2001The whole country. | 1,580 ha (better) | 2.6 million ha |
| Share of its forest lostOf what it had in 2000. | 1.2% (better) | 6.7% |
| Average tree coverAcross its measured cities. | 12.7% | 27.3% (better) |
Air quality today
Is Egypt cleaner than India?
On air quality, yes, right now. Egypt has cleaner air than India right now: its cities average AQI 127 against 156.
At ground stations alone, which measure rather than estimate, the averages are Egypt 65 (3 cities) and India 169 (207 cities).
46% of the measured cities in Egypt are over AQI 100 today, the point where the air stops being fine for sensitive groups, against 74% in India.
How each country's cities split across the air quality bands
Egypt
- Good4 (6%)
- Moderate31 (48%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups13 (20%)
- Unhealthy6 (9%)
- Very unhealthy5 (8%)
- Hazardous6 (9%)
India
- Good6 (1%)
- Moderate116 (25%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups112 (24%)
- Unhealthy182 (39%)
- Very unhealthy29 (6%)
- Hazardous26 (6%)
Every measured city, including model estimates where no ground station is near.
Against everywhere else
How do Egypt and India compare with other countries?
Right now the cities of Egypt average cleaner air than 2% of the 171 countries Airleaf has enough cities to average, and those of India than 1%.
Cleaner air than…
- Egypt
- Beats 2%
- India
- Beats 1%
More tree cover than…
- Egypt
- Beats 24%
- India
- Beats 59%
Deforestation · 2001–2025
Which country has lost more forest, Egypt or India?
India has lost more: about 2.6 million ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 1,580 ha in Egypt, or 1648 times as much. 730,000 ha of India's was cleared for good, for farms, mines or towns; the rest burned, was logged or can grow back.
The whole country, from the yearly satellite maps of forest loss: unlike the city averages above, this counts every forest, not just the land around cities.
Worst year: 2012, with 337 ha lost.
Worst year: 2017, with 190,000 ha lost.
| Egypt | India | |
|---|---|---|
| Forest lost since 2001Cleared, burned or logged. | 1,580 ha (better) | 2.6 million ha |
| Share of its forestOf what it had in 2000. | 1.2% (better) | 6.7% |
| Cleared for goodTurned into farms, mines or towns. | 1,030 ha (better) | 730,000 ha |
| Recent trend2021–2025 against the five years before. | Too little to call | Holding steady |
| Main known cause | Farms, pasture and plantations (55%) | Shifting farming (59%) |
Trees
Which country has more tree cover, Egypt or India?
India does: its measured cities average 27.3% tree cover against 12.7%, a gap of 14.6 percentage points.
| Egypt | India | |
|---|---|---|
| Trees standingSummed across measured cities. | 2.5M | 39.1M (better) |
| Cities below their targetShort of the canopy target. | 95% | 77% (better) |
| Trees still neededTo reach those targets. | 4.3M (better) | 19.0M |
Behind the averages
The cities behind Egypt and India
An average says nothing about how far apart the best and worst places are. These are the measured cities at each end.
Reading these numbers
What a country average is, and is not
It is a mean of cities
Not a national statistic. Each figure is the average across the cities Airleaf has measured: 65 in Egypt and 471 in India, each read over the same 2 km radius, on the US EPA index. Rural land and unmeasured towns are not in it.
Coverage shapes the number
A country measured mostly in its capital reads differently from one measured across dozens of towns. India rests on 471 cities against 65, so its average is the steadier of the two. Forest figures come from the University of Maryland's Global Forest Change maps.
Frequently asked
Egypt vs India: your questions answered
Is Egypt cleaner than India?
On air quality, yes, right now: Egypt's cities average AQI 127 against 156 on the US EPA index. These are live readings averaged across cities, so the gap moves with the weather. At ground stations alone, which measure rather than estimate, the averages are Egypt 65 (3 cities) and India 169 (207 cities).
Which country has lost more forest, Egypt or India?
India has lost more: about 2.6 million ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 1,580 ha in Egypt, or 1648 times as much. 730,000 ha of India's was cleared for good, for farms, mines or towns; the rest burned, was logged or can grow back.
Which country has more tree cover, Egypt or India?
India does: its measured cities average 27.3% tree cover against 12.7%, a gap of 14.6 percentage points.
How many cities are the Egypt and India figures based on?
65 measured cities in Egypt and 471 in India. Every one was read the same way, so the two averages are directly comparable, but a country with more measured cities has the more settled figure.
Why are there two air quality averages for each country?
The first covers every measured city, using a ground station where one is close and a model estimate everywhere else. The second counts only cities with a current station reading, which is measured rather than estimated but covers fewer places. Airleaf's world rankings use the station figures only.
Does this cover the whole of Egypt and India?
The air and tree figures are not: they are the cities Airleaf has measured, each over the same 2 km radius, so treat them as a comparison of urban air and urban tree cover. The forest figures are: they count every forest in the country.
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