Air Quality

This indicator shows how many days per year were assessed to have air quality that was worse than “moderate” in Champaign County, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) Air Quality Index Reports. The period of analysis is 1980-2023, and the U.S. EPA’s air quality ratings analyzed here are as follows, from best to worst: “good,” “moderate,” “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” “unhealthy,” “very unhealthy,” and "hazardous."[1]

In 2023, the number of days rated to have air quality worse than moderate was the highest in the 21st century at 13. This is likely due to the air pollution created by the unprecedented Canadian wildfire smoke in Summer 2023.

While there has been no consistent year-to-year trend in the number of days per year rated to have air quality worse than moderate, the number of days in peak years had decreased from 2000 through 2022. Where peak years before 2000 had between one and two dozen days with air quality worse than moderate (e.g., 1983, 18 days; 1988, 23 days; 1994, 17 days; 1999, 24 days), the year with the greatest number of days with air quality worse than moderate from 2000-2022 was 2002, with 10 days. There were several years between 2006 and 2022 that had no days with air quality worse than moderate.

This data is sourced from the U.S. EPA’s Air Quality Index Reports. The reports are released annually, and our period of analysis is 1980-2023. The Air Quality Index Report websites does caution that "[a]ir pollution levels measured at a particular monitoring site are not necessarily representative of the air quality for an entire county or urban area," and recommends that data users do not compare air quality between different locations[2].

[1] Environmental Protection Agency. (1980-2023). Air Quality Index Reports. (Accessed 4 June 2024).

[2] Ibid.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency. (1980-2023). Air Quality Index Reports. https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/air-quality-index-report. (Accessed 4 June 2024).