Breathing in South Sudan is Injurious to Health.

Air pollution threatens the health of 12.1 million people across 10 regions in South Sudan. The average PM2.5 level is 13.5 µg/m³—2.7Ɨ higher than the WHO guideline.

Brought to you by Amrit Sharma

Air Pollution in South Sudan

South Sudan faces significant air pollution challenges. 100% of states exceed the WHO guideline for clean air. This is putting 12.1 million across 10 states at risk.

The average PM2.5 over 2023 was 13.5µg/m³. That's 2.7 times the WHO guideline for clean air of 5µg/m³.

This is equivalent of everybody, including children, smoking about 224 cigarettes in a year.

Life Expectancy Impact

Every person in South Sudan is losing 0.83 years of their life to air pollution. This isn't just a statistic—it's grandparents who won't see their grandchildren graduate. Parents missing birthdays. Lives cut short. Breathing kills.

These stolen years come from diseases you know—COPD that makes every breath a struggle, lung cancer that turns healthy tissue deadly, heart attacks that strike without warning, strokes that change everything in an instant. Air pollution doesn't just kill. It damages your body from the inside, every single day.

Across South Sudan, 10.1M years of life hang in the balance. That's the collective future being taken from 12.1 million people—simply by breathing.

Population Exposure by Pollution Level

Distribution of population across different PM2.5 pollution levels. The WHO guideline is 5 µg/m³—only populations below this threshold are breathing safe air.

< 5 µg/m³
0%
0
5-10 µg/m³
0%
0
10-15 µg/m³
83.8%
10.2M
15-25 µg/m³
16.2%
2.0M
25-35 µg/m³
0%
0
> 35 µg/m³
0%
0