City report · Victoria, Australia
Ballarat Air quality today
Air quality in Ballarat currently reads AQI 5 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Air quality right now
AQI 5
Good
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 1.0
- tree cover
- 24.8%
- trees in this area
- 74.6K
- more trees needed
- 15.6K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Ballarat Central VIC 3350, Australia (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Mar 15, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Ballarat · AQI 5 (Good)
Ballarat's tree count comes to 74,561 trees across 12.03 km² of land, 5 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 15,634 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Ballarat today: AQI 5, Good
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 04:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, corrected with 3 ground-station cities within 105 km, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Estimate · model corrected with 3 station cities within 105 km, e.g. Geelong and Bendigo
Health signal
Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
PM2.5
1.0
PM10
6.2
NO₂
5.2
O₃
44.0
SO₂
0.9
CO
69.0
- Outdoor exercise
- A good day to be active outside
- Windows
- Open them to air the house
- Mask
- Not needed
- Air purifier
- Not needed
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Ballarat's daily AQI at 23 on average, from 14 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 46 on Nov 6.
Where Ballarat stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Ballarat: Below target
24.8% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 12.03 km² of land.
Trees in this area
74,561
Target trees
90,195
More trees needed
15,634
CO₂ if planted / yr
343.9 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Ballarat lost?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Ballarat has lost about 2,420 hectares of forest (about 3,400 football pitches): 34% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it was lost to logging, so much of it can grow back. About 570 hectares (24%) was deforestation: forest cleared for good for farms, mines or towns.
2017: satellite photo from March 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area about 7 km northeast of the city center.
- Forest lost since 2001
- 2,420 haabout 3,400 football pitches
- Share of its forest
- 34%of what there was in 2000
- Cleared for good
- 570 hadeforestation: turned into farms, mines or towns
Forest loss is slowing down: about 16 hectares a year in 2021–2025, down from 274 hectares a year in 2016–2020. The worst year was 2016, when about 1,120 hectares of forest were lost.
Hectares of forest lost each year
Show the figures as a table
| Year | Cleared for good | Can grow back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 34 ha | 103 ha | 137 ha |
| 2002 | 6 ha | 17 ha | 24 ha |
| 2003 | 20 ha | 42 ha | 62 ha |
| 2004 | 39 ha | 2 ha | 41 ha |
| 2005 | 45 ha | 6 ha | 52 ha |
| 2006 | 42 ha | 9 ha | 50 ha |
| 2007 | 17 ha | 30 ha | 47 ha |
| 2008 | 45 ha | 32 ha | 77 ha |
| 2009 | 18 ha | 38 ha | 56 ha |
| 2010 | 25 ha | 82 ha | 107 ha |
| 2011 | 19 ha | 92 ha | 110 ha |
| 2012 | 11 ha | 52 ha | 63 ha |
| 2013 | 12 ha | 12 ha | 24 ha |
| 2014 | 27 ha | 75 ha | 102 ha |
| 2015 | 11 ha | 9 ha | 20 ha |
| 2016 | 142 ha | 982 ha | 1,120 ha |
| 2017 | 14 ha | 83 ha | 97 ha |
| 2018 | 11 ha | 25 ha | 36 ha |
| 2019 | 6 ha | 72 ha | 79 ha |
| 2020 | 11 ha | 25 ha | 36 ha |
| 2021 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2022 | 9 ha | 13 ha | 22 ha |
| 2023 | 2 ha | 8 ha | 9 ha |
| 2024 | 2 ha | 28 ha | 30 ha |
| 2025 | 3 ha | 15 ha | 18 ha |
What is causing deforestation around Ballarat?
- Loggingcan grow back60% · 1,460 ha
- Towns and roadscleared for good16% · 386 ha
- Wildfirescan grow back16% · 377 ha
Also: mining and energy, farms, pasture and plantations, storms, floods and other natural causes, unknown causes.
Causes for 2025 are estimates, based on what caused forest loss in the same places up to 2024.
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 7,200 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 7,190 ha
- Overall change
- −10 haless forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Ballarat stayed about the same size, at about 7,190 hectares: new forest grew on about 733 hectares, and about 743 hectares were lost.
These 2000 and 2020 maps, from the University of Maryland, count any land with trees taller than 5 m as forest, including plantations and orchards. Forest that was cut or burned and had grown back by 2020 counts in both years, so the loss here is smaller than the yearly figures.
These figures cover everything within 10 km of the city center, a wider area than the report above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. Forest gained and lost 2000–2020: Potapov et al. 2022, UMD GLAD Global Land Cover and Land Use Change, CC BY 4.0. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
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Frequently asked
Questions about Ballarat
What is the air quality (AQI) in Ballarat right now?
The latest reading for Ballarat shows an AQI of 5 (Good), observed Nov 11, 04:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, corrected with 3 ground-station cities within 105 km, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Ballarat today?
At AQI 5 (Good): a good day to be active outside. Windows: open them to air the house. Masks: not needed. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Ballarat been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Ballarat's daily AQI at 23 on average, from 14 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 46 on Nov 6. No day averaged above 100, the level where the air turns unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Ballarat lost since 2001?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Ballarat has lost about 2,420 hectares of forest (about 3,400 football pitches): 34% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it was lost to logging, so much of it can grow back. About 570 hectares (24%) was deforestation: forest cleared for good for farms, mines or towns. Forest loss is slowing down: about 16 hectares a year in 2021–2025, down from 274 hectares a year in 2016–2020. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Ballarat stayed about the same size, at about 7,190 hectares: new forest grew on about 733 hectares, and about 743 hectares were lost.
What is the tree count in Ballarat?
Ballarat has an estimated 74,561 trees across the 12.03 km² of land measured — 24.8% tree cover, 5 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Ballarat need?
Ballarat needs roughly 15,634 more trees to close a 5-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 343.9 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Ballarat's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality comes from ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ where one reports nearby, and otherwise, as here, from the Open-Meteo / CAMS model, which may differ from street-level monitors. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 2 km radius around Ballarat Central VIC 3350; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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