Country comparison · 146 cities measured
Iran vs Iraq Air quality index (AQI) and deforestation
Iran has cleaner air than Iraq right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 72.
Iran has lost more forest since 2001. Iraq 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.
Iran61Iraq72
Head to head
Iran vs Iraq at a glance
Iran is ahead on 3 of 5 measures, and Iraq on 2. The better figure in each row is marked.
| Iran | Iraq | |
|---|---|---|
| Average air qualityUS AQI, all measured cities. | 61 (better) | 72 |
| Cities over AQI 100Not fine for sensitive groups. | 11% (better) | 16% |
| Forest lost since 2001The whole country. | 4,270 ha | 138 ha (better) |
| Share of its forest lostOf what it had in 2000. | under 1% (better) | under 1% |
| Average tree coverAcross its measured cities. | 5.0% | 5.1% (better) |
Air quality today
Is Iran cleaner than Iraq?
On air quality, yes, right now. Iran has cleaner air than Iraq right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 72.
11% of the measured cities in Iran are over AQI 100 today, the point where the air stops being fine for sensitive groups, against 16% in Iraq.
How each country's cities split across the air quality bands
Iran
- Good38 (39%)
- Moderate48 (49%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups3 (3%)
- Unhealthy8 (8%)
Iraq
- Good10 (20%)
- Moderate31 (63%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups4 (8%)
- Unhealthy4 (8%)
Every measured city, including model estimates where no ground station is near.
Against everywhere else
How do Iran and Iraq compare with other countries?
Right now the cities of Iran average cleaner air than 37% of the 171 countries Airleaf has enough cities to average, and those of Iraq than 22%.
Cleaner air than…
- Iran
- Beats 37%
- Iraq
- Beats 22%
More tree cover than…
- Iran
- Beats 9%
- Iraq
- Beats 10%
Deforestation · 2001–2025
Which country has lost more forest, Iran or Iraq?
Iran has lost more: about 4,270 ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 138 ha in Iraq, or 31 times as much. 1,370 ha of Iran'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: 2002, with 559 ha lost.
Worst year: 2003, with 19 ha lost.
| Iran | Iraq | |
|---|---|---|
| Forest lost since 2001Cleared, burned or logged. | 4,270 ha | 138 ha (better) |
| Share of its forestOf what it had in 2000. | under 1% (better) | under 1% |
| Cleared for goodTurned into farms, mines or towns. | 1,370 ha | 60 ha (better) |
| Recent trend2021–2025 against the five years before. | Holding steady | Too little to call |
| Main known cause | Logging (27%) | Farms, pasture and plantations (33%) |
Trees
Which country has more tree cover, Iran or Iraq?
Iraq does: its measured cities average 5.1% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 0.0 percentage points.
| Iran | Iraq | |
|---|---|---|
| Trees standingSummed across measured cities. | 1.5M (better) | 770K |
| Cities below their targetShort of the canopy target. | 99% (better) | 100% |
| Trees still neededTo reach those targets. | 7.8M | 4.0M (better) |
Behind the averages
The cities behind Iran and Iraq
An average says nothing about how far apart the best and worst places are. These are the measured cities at each end.
Iraq
- Greenest measured city
- Al Miqdādīyah19.8% tree cover
- Worst air right now
- SulaymaniyahAQI 131
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: 97 in Iran and 49 in Iraq, 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. Iran rests on 97 cities against 49, so its average is the steadier of the two. Forest figures come from the University of Maryland's Global Forest Change maps.
Frequently asked
Iran vs Iraq: your questions answered
Is Iran cleaner than Iraq?
On air quality, yes, right now: Iran's cities average AQI 61 against 72 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, Iran or Iraq?
Iran has lost more: about 4,270 ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 138 ha in Iraq, or 31 times as much. 1,370 ha of Iran'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, Iran or Iraq?
Iraq does: its measured cities average 5.1% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 0.0 percentage points.
How many cities are the Iran and Iraq figures based on?
97 measured cities in Iran and 49 in Iraq. 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 Iran and Iraq?
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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