Air pollution is a small but important contributor to many illnesses in the community including lung disease, heart disease and stroke. The better the air quality, the better our health.

Inspired by the health star rating system for food, which enables consumers to compare the relative healthiness of similar food products, we developed a five-star rating system that recognises the healthiness of air. The aims of the project are:

• To enable people across Australia see how air quality varies; and
• To stimulate thought and discussion about opportunities for air quality and health improvement in Australia.

Use the drop down menus to:

• Explore monitoring station air quality star ratings by State/Territory;
• Select a year; and
• Sort the ratings table by star rating, date, place and air quality data.

Hover your mouse over a monitoring station on the map or on the stars in the table to see more details. Click the ‘i’ circle for more information about the Start Rating system. More information about the methodology is available below. The tool is designed for use with a desktop computer.

Methodology and considerations

We developed five criteria based on the amount of air pollution measured at selected government air quality stations across Australia. We gave a full star for each criterion where the air quality was better than average Australian conditions, or if a long-term trend improved. A half-star indicated more typical air quality conditions for Australia, showing potential for improvement. No stars were given if air quality was worse than average Australian conditions or on a worsening trend. The higher the star rating, the better the air quality for promoting health.

The overall star rating for each station was grouped into one of four colour-coded categories: green, yellow, orange or red and are shown on the map.

The detailed criteria are shown in the table below.  The criteria included measures of long-term average PM₂.₅ over 5 years, and frequency of short-term elevations in PM₂.₅ for 1 year (i.e., the star rating for 2021 was developed with long-term values from 2016-2020 and short-term metrics for 2021).  

While air quality in Australia is generally better than in many other places globally, we show a wide variation in air quality around the country. A major source of PM₂.₅ in Australia is combustion, including bushfires, the burning of wood, coal, petrol or diesel. One of the common reasons for reduced star ratings for specific years and/or locations could be the influence of events such as the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020 or annual savannah fires in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Another common contributor to high and moderate pollution days is smoke from burning wood for home heating

Acknowledgements

This data visualisation tool was developed by Dr. Nicolás Borchers Arriagada, post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Safe Air, based at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania. 

The methodology for this project was developed by Dr Rachel Tham, post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Safe Air, based at the University of Melbourne. You can read our previous star rating report here.