Country comparison · 568 cities measured
India vs Iran Air quality index (AQI) and deforestation
Iran has cleaner air than India right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 152.
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.
India152Iran61
Head to head
India vs Iran at a glance
Iran is ahead on 4 of 5 measures, and India on 1. The better figure in each row is marked.
| India | Iran | |
|---|---|---|
| Average air qualityUS AQI, all measured cities. | 152 | 61 (better) |
| Cities over AQI 100Not fine for sensitive groups. | 75% | 11% (better) |
| Forest lost since 2001The whole country. | 2.6 million ha | 4,270 ha (better) |
| Share of its forest lostOf what it had in 2000. | 6.7% | under 1% (better) |
| Average tree coverAcross its measured cities. | 27.3% (better) | 5.0% |
Air quality today
Is Iran cleaner than India?
On air quality, yes, right now. Iran has cleaner air than India right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 152.
75% of the measured cities in India are over AQI 100 today, the point where the air stops being fine for sensitive groups, against 11% in Iran.
How each country's cities split across the air quality bands
India
- Good4 (1%)
- Moderate113 (24%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups116 (25%)
- Unhealthy181 (38%)
- Very unhealthy34 (7%)
- Hazardous23 (5%)
Iran
- Good38 (39%)
- Moderate48 (49%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups3 (3%)
- Unhealthy8 (8%)
Every measured city, including model estimates where no ground station is near.
Against everywhere else
How do India and Iran compare with other countries?
Right now the cities of India average cleaner air than 2% of the 171 countries Airleaf has enough cities to average, and those of Iran than 37%.
Cleaner air than…
- India
- Beats 2%
- Iran
- Beats 37%
More tree cover than…
- India
- Beats 59%
- Iran
- Beats 9%
Deforestation · 2001–2025
Which country has lost more forest, India or Iran?
India has lost more: about 2.6 million ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 4,270 ha in Iran, or 609 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: 2017, with 190,000 ha lost.
Worst year: 2002, with 559 ha lost.
| India | Iran | |
|---|---|---|
| Forest lost since 2001Cleared, burned or logged. | 2.6 million ha | 4,270 ha (better) |
| Share of its forestOf what it had in 2000. | 6.7% | under 1% (better) |
| Cleared for goodTurned into farms, mines or towns. | 730,000 ha | 1,370 ha (better) |
| Recent trend2021–2025 against the five years before. | Holding steady | Holding steady |
| Main known cause | Shifting farming (59%) | Logging (27%) |
Trees
Which country has more tree cover, India or Iran?
India does: its measured cities average 27.3% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 22.2 percentage points.
| India | Iran | |
|---|---|---|
| Trees standingSummed across measured cities. | 39.1M (better) | 1.5M |
| Cities below their targetShort of the canopy target. | 77% (better) | 99% |
| Trees still neededTo reach those targets. | 19.0M | 7.8M (better) |
Behind the averages
The cities behind India and Iran
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: 471 in India and 97 in Iran, 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 97, so its average is the steadier of the two. Forest figures come from the University of Maryland's Global Forest Change maps.
Frequently asked
India vs Iran: your questions answered
Is Iran cleaner than India?
On air quality, yes, right now: Iran's cities average AQI 61 against 152 on the US EPA index. These are live readings averaged across cities, so the gap moves with the weather.
Which country has lost more forest, India or Iran?
India has lost more: about 2.6 million ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 4,270 ha in Iran, or 609 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, India or Iran?
India does: its measured cities average 27.3% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 22.2 percentage points.
How many cities are the India and Iran figures based on?
471 measured cities in India and 97 in Iran. 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.
Does this cover the whole of India and Iran?
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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