City report · Senegal
Dakar Air quality today
Air quality in Dakar currently reads AQI 14 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Air quality right now
AQI 14
Good
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 2.5
- tree cover
- 3.7%
- trees in this area
- 11.2K
- more trees needed
- 79.6K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Colobane, Dakar, Senegal (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Sep 18, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Dakar · AQI 14 (Good)
Dakar's tree count comes to 11,194 trees across 12.1 km² of land, 26 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 79,567 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Dakar today: AQI 14, Good
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 15:00 local time via OpenAQ ground stations, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Ground station · Lycée Blaise Diagne, 1 km away · median of 2 stations
Health signal
Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
PM2.5
2.5
PM10
—
NO₂
—
O₃
—
SO₂
—
CO
—
Data: OpenAQ · AirGradient, kaikai.dev
- 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 Dakar's daily AQI at 73 on average, from 61 on Nov 4 to an hourly peak of 106 on Nov 8.
Where Dakar stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Dakar: Critically low
3.7% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 12.1 km² of land.
Trees in this area
11,194
Target trees
90,761
More trees needed
79,567
CO₂ if planted / yr
1,750 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Dakar lost?
There was almost no forest around Dakar in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here.
2017: satellite photo from February 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 72 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 102 ha
- Overall change
- +30 hamore forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Dakar grew from about 72 hectares to 102 hectares, a net gain of about 30 hectares. New forest grew on about 31 hectares, while under 1 hectare was 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
In the same region
Measured cities near Dakar
Same 2 km radius, same index — so they compare directly.
- Rufisque18.5 km
Senegal
- Tree cover
- 2%
- Air quality
- 15
- Tivaouane73.4 km
Senegal
- Tree cover
- 4%
- Air quality
- 59
- Diourbel129.2 km
Senegal
- Tree cover
- 9%
- Air quality
- 29
Also compared:Dakar vs Touba
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Frequently asked
Questions about Dakar
What is the air quality (AQI) in Dakar right now?
The latest reading for Dakar shows an AQI of 14 (Good), measured Nov 11, 15:00 local time by 2 ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ (the median of their readings; the nearest is Lycée Blaise Diagne, 1 km away). The main pollutant is PM2.5. Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Dakar today?
At AQI 14 (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 Dakar been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Dakar's daily AQI at 73 on average, from 61 on Nov 4 to an hourly peak of 106 on Nov 8. No day averaged above 100, the level where the air turns unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Dakar lost since 2001?
There was almost no forest around Dakar in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Dakar grew from about 72 hectares to 102 hectares, a net gain of about 30 hectares. New forest grew on about 31 hectares, while under 1 hectare was lost.
What is the tree count in Dakar?
Dakar has an estimated 11,194 trees across the 12.1 km² of land measured — 3.7% tree cover, 26 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Dakar need?
Dakar needs roughly 79,567 more trees to close a 26-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 1,750 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Dakar's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality is measured by ground monitoring stations near Colobane, via OpenAQ; the 7-day trend is the Open-Meteo / CAMS model's estimate. 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 Colobane; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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