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About Us

The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) converts air pollution concentrations into their impact on life expectancy. Through the AQLI’s hyper-local data, users anywhere on Earth can zoom into their district and see how much longer they would live if policies were to reduce pollution to meet the World Health Organization’s guideline, a national standard, or a user-defined target. This information can help inform local communities and policymakers about the benefits of air pollution policies in perhaps the most important measure that exists: longer lives.

AQLI’S THEORY OF CHANGE

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Air pollution can be drastically reduced through effective policies
Effective policies come out of a demand for change
To understand change, citizens need local infromation to understand the problem and how it impacts them
That’s where AQLI comes in

Clean air requires effective policies.

Effective policies require a demand for change.

What leads citizens to demand change?

Local information about air pollution.

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PM2.5 (in µg/m³)
Years since monitor installation →
When U.S. embassies in countries around the world started installing air pollution monitors and displaying the data publicly... Read the study
...pollution began to decline in the countries that had little or no public data available before the monitors. Pollution data can lead to change. That’s why we’re supporting efforts to bring more monitors and open data to data poor areas. Learn more at EPIC AIR QUALITY FUND
The traditional approach to communicating the risk of air pollution has been through the “traffic light” color-coding of Air Quality Index systems used by many countries and organizations. However, these colors do little to convey long-term health risk.
The AQLI uses a novel approach to communicate the risk of pollution in the most immediate and important term: life expectancy.
This information not only provides people with information about how the air they breathe impacts their life, but also underscores the importance of effective policies by illustrating the benefits of both past and proposed air quality regulations.

Research Design

The AQLI is rooted in peer-reviewed research by an international team of scholars, including Michael Greenstone from the University of Chicago, which for the first time quantified the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to air pollution and life expectancy.

This research is based on pollution data at the very high concentrations that prevail in many parts of the world, unlike previous work that has relied on evidence from the low levels experienced in places like the United States.

The Index combines this research with hyper-localized, global particulate matter satellite data. This unique approach makes the AQLI the first pollution index to show what the threat of air pollution means to a person’s life anywhere in the world.

GO TO METHODOLOGY
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Our funders

The work of the Air Quality Life Index is made possible through the generous support of the following individuals and institutions:

David and Christine Gross-Loh
Eric and Valonia Oei
The Becker Friedman Institute
Donald R. Wilson Jr., UChicago, AB ‘88