Breathing in Bhutan is Injurious to Health.

Air pollution threatens the health of 879 thousand people across 20 regions in Bhutan. The average PM2.5 level is 25.4 µg/m³—5.1Ɨ higher than the WHO guideline.

Brought to you by Amrit Sharma

Air Pollution in Bhutan

Bhutan faces significant air pollution challenges. 100% of states exceed the WHO guideline for clean air. This is putting 879 thousand across 20 states at risk.

The average PM2.5 over 2023 was 25.4µg/m³. That's 5.1 times the WHO guideline for clean air of 5µg/m³.

This is equivalent of everybody, including children, smoking about 421 cigarettes in a year.

Life Expectancy Impact

Every person in Bhutan is losing 2 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 Bhutan, 1.8M years of life hang in the balance. That's the collective future being taken from 879 thousand 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
2.4%
22K
15-25 µg/m³
59.7%
525K
25-35 µg/m³
29%
255K
> 35 µg/m³
8.8%
78K