Country comparison · 224 cities measured
Iran vs Pakistan Air quality index (AQI) and deforestation
Iran has cleaner air than Pakistan right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 324.
Pakistan has lost more forest since 2001. Pakistan 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.
Iran61Pakistan324
Head to head
Iran vs Pakistan at a glance
Iran is ahead on 4 of 5 measures, and Pakistan on 1. The better figure in each row is marked.
| Iran | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Average air qualityUS AQI, all measured cities. | 61 (better) | 324 |
| Cities over AQI 100Not fine for sensitive groups. | 11% (better) | 86% |
| Forest lost since 2001The whole country. | 4,270 ha (better) | 10,300 ha |
| Share of its forest lostOf what it had in 2000. | under 1% (better) | 1% |
| Average tree coverAcross its measured cities. | 5.0% | 12.5% (better) |
Air quality today
Is Iran cleaner than Pakistan?
On air quality, yes, right now. Iran has cleaner air than Pakistan right now: its cities average AQI 61 against 324.
11% of the measured cities in Iran are over AQI 100 today, the point where the air stops being fine for sensitive groups, against 86% in Pakistan.
How each country's cities split across the air quality bands
Iran
- Good38 (39%)
- Moderate48 (49%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups3 (3%)
- Unhealthy8 (8%)
Pakistan
- Good1 (1%)
- Moderate17 (13%)
- Unhealthy for sensitive groups15 (12%)
- Unhealthy23 (18%)
- Very unhealthy20 (16%)
- Hazardous51 (40%)
Every measured city, including model estimates where no ground station is near.
Against everywhere else
How do Iran and Pakistan 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 Pakistan than 0%.
Cleaner air than…
- Iran
- Beats 37%
- Pakistan
- Beats 0%
More tree cover than…
- Iran
- Beats 9%
- Pakistan
- Beats 22%
Deforestation · 2001–2025
Which country has lost more forest, Iran or Pakistan?
Pakistan has lost more: about 10,300 ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 4,270 ha in Iran, or 2.4 times as much. 784 ha of Pakistan'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: 2006, with 1,340 ha lost.
| Iran | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Forest lost since 2001Cleared, burned or logged. | 4,270 ha (better) | 10,300 ha |
| Share of its forestOf what it had in 2000. | under 1% (better) | 1% |
| Cleared for goodTurned into farms, mines or towns. | 1,370 ha | 784 ha (better) |
| Recent trend2021–2025 against the five years before. | Holding steady | Speeding up |
| Main known cause | Logging (27%) | Logging (69%) |
Trees
Which country has more tree cover, Iran or Pakistan?
Pakistan does: its measured cities average 12.5% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
| Iran | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Trees standingSummed across measured cities. | 1.5M | 5.0M (better) |
| Cities below their targetShort of the canopy target. | 99% | 95% (better) |
| Trees still neededTo reach those targets. | 7.8M (better) | 11.5M |
Behind the averages
The cities behind Iran and Pakistan
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: 97 in Iran and 127 in Pakistan, 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. Pakistan rests on 127 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
Iran vs Pakistan: your questions answered
Is Iran cleaner than Pakistan?
On air quality, yes, right now: Iran's cities average AQI 61 against 324 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 Pakistan?
Pakistan has lost more: about 10,300 ha of forest from 2001 to 2025, against 4,270 ha in Iran, or 2.4 times as much. 784 ha of Pakistan'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 Pakistan?
Pakistan does: its measured cities average 12.5% tree cover against 5.0%, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
How many cities are the Iran and Pakistan figures based on?
97 measured cities in Iran and 127 in Pakistan. 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 Pakistan?
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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