visualizedata.org

Demo page: real public data, in a page layout that is still being designed. Numbers are as the sources published them on the build date shown at the bottom.

Indicators / United States / Air quality

Median daily AQI

AQI · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AirData annual AQI by county, via airdata.dev · the middle day of the year; 0–50 is good, 51–100 moderate

Middle county, 2025
40 AQI
States with a figure
none county figures only
Counties with a figure
916 2025
Median daily AQI, the middle US county, 1980–2025The median of the 916 counties with a figure was 40 AQI in 2025, against 41 AQI in 2015; the counties with a monitor change from year to year.
36384042444619801990200020102020
Indicator: Median daily AQI, AQI, yearly (the middle day of the year; 0–50 is good, 51–100 moderate); EPA median AQI; median across counties with a figure that yearSource: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AirData annual AQI by county (U.S. public domain), via airdata.dev county-aqi-annual, version 2026-10-26.271cefd8c0
Show the numbers (46 rows)
YearMiddle county
202540
202441
202343
202241
202141
202039
201941
201841
201742
201641
201541
201442
201342
201244
201144
201044
200941
200844
200746
200644
200544
200442
200344
200244
200144
200044
199945
199841
199739
199639
199539
199439
199338
199237
199139
199039
198940
198842
198742
198640
198540
198440
198339
198239
198138
198040

Highest and lowest counties, 2025

HighestStateMedian daily AQI
Riverside CountyCalifornia80 AQI
San Bernardino CountyCalifornia77 AQI
Los Angeles CountyCalifornia74 AQI
Maricopa CountyArizona73 AQI
El Paso CountyTexas70 AQI
Kern CountyCalifornia70 AQI
San Diego CountyCalifornia67 AQI
Pinal CountyArizona67 AQI
Tulare CountyCalifornia64 AQI
Imperial CountyCalifornia64 AQI
LowestStateMedian daily AQI
Ponce MunicipioPuerto Rico3 AQI
Caguas MunicipioPuerto Rico5 AQI
Karnes CountyTexas6 AQI
Wilson CountyTexas8 AQI
Carbon CountyWyoming8 AQI
Washakie CountyWyoming8 AQI
Matanuska-Susitna BoroughAlaska9 AQI
Sonoma CountyCalifornia9 AQI
Uinta CountyWyoming9 AQI
Mayagüez MunicipioPuerto Rico9 AQI

Every county's figure is on its own page, in its profile table, with its rank among all counties and within its state.

Get this data

This page's numbers, as JSON:

curl https://visualizedata.org/data/us-indicators/us-median-aqi.json

Every place from airdata.dev (live, no key; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, this exact version):

curl "https://api.airdata.dev/v1/county-aqi-annual@2026-10-26.271cefd8c0/download/county-aqi-annual.parquet"

Open the JSON

Source

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AirData annual AQI by county (U.S. public domain): EPA median AQI.
  • Read through airdata.dev, dataset county-aqi-annual, version 2026-10-26.271cefd8c0; its 47 input files from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are named with their sha256 in this page's data, and the site's checks recompute every figure from them.
  • A year counts once it is over, for counties whose monitors gave an AQI on at least 180 days; EPA's file for the current year is partial. A county without a monitor has no figure, and one monitor can stand for a large county. Fine-particle (PM2.5) monitors only spread from 1999, and EPA has since tightened the AQI scale for ozone and fine particles, so a long trend mixes changes in the air with changes in what is measured and how.
  • EPA refreshes its annual files twice a year; a year is final about May of the next.
  • 12 areas in the source are not places in the geo registry and are left out: us-county-02261, us-county-09001, us-county-09003, us-county-09005, us-county-09007, us-county-09009, us-county-09011, us-county-09013, us-county-09015, us-county-78010, us-county-78020, us-county-78030 (Connecticut's former counties, retired Alaska and South Dakota codes, the Virgin Islands).
  • Built 2026-10-26.