Nearly 263 million people live in the 885 counties with enough monitoring data to be assigned a grade for at least one pollutant in this year’s report. The majority of U.S. counties actually don’t have monitors—which means that many communities, especially rural ones, don’t have official monitored information on their air quality. It is important to note that the population numbers included in this section are only for those places that collect air pollution data, and do not reflect the entire population of these groups in the U.S. The availability of data, and hence the population that is included in this report, differs for each pollutant.
All of the 131.2 million Americans living in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution are at risk of harm to their health. But some groups of people are especially vulnerable to illness and death from their exposure. See People at Risk for more detail about the factors that contribute to increased risk.
The number of people in these high-risk groups in “State of the Air” 2024 are as follows:
- People of color—About 68.9 million people of color live in counties that received at least one failing grade for ozone and/or particle pollution. Over 27.5 million people of color live in counties that received failing grades on all three measures, including some 16.8 million Hispanic or Latino people.
- People experiencing poverty—Sixteen million people with incomes meeting the federal poverty definition live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More than 5.4 million people in poverty live in counties failing all three measures.
- Children and older adults—More than 29.2 million children under age 18 and some 20.6 million adults age 65 and over live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More than 9.7 million children and more than 6.7 million seniors live in counties failing all three measures.
- People with underlying health conditions
- Asthma—More than 1.9 million children and nearly 9.8 million adults with asthma live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More than 600,000 children and some 3.1 million adults with asthma live in counties failing all three measures.
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)—Some 6.0 million people with COPD live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More than 1.7 million people with COPD live in counties failing all three measures.
- Lung Cancer—More than 55,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant, and about 15,200 people diagnosed with lung cancer live in counties failing all three measures.
- Cardiovascular Disease—More than 8.4 million people with cardiovascular disease live in counties that received an F for at least one pollutant. More than 2.5 million people live in counties failing all three measures.
- Pregnancy—Adverse impacts from air pollution have been shown both for those who are pregnant as well as for the developing fetus. More than 1.4 million pregnancies were recorded in 2022 in counties that received at least one failing grade for particle pollution. Of those, more than 478,000 were in counties that received failing grades for all three measures.