According to the monitoring data from the Embassy of the United States, there was on average 39 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic meter to be found in the air in Beijing during 2023. The air quality has improved considerably since 2013.

Reasons for air pollution in Beijing

China’s capital city Beijing is one of the most populous cities in China with over 20 million inhabitants. Over the past 20 years, Beijing’s GDP has increased tenfold. With the significant growth of vehicles and energy consumption in the country, Beijing’s air quality is under great pressure from the economic development. In the past, the city had a high level of coal consumption. Especially in winter, in which coal consumption increased due to heating, the air quality could get extremely bad on the days without wind. In spring, the wind from the north would bring sand from Mongolian deserts, resulting in severe sandstorms in Beijing. The bad air quality also affected the air visibility and threatened people’s health. On days with very bad air quality, people wearing masks for protection can be seen on the streets in the city.

Methods to improve air quality in Beijing

Over the past years, the government has implemented various methods to improve the air quality in Northern China. Sandstorms, which were quite common 15 years ago, are now rarely seen in Beijing’s spring thanks to afforestation projects on China’s northern borders. The license-plate lottery system was introduced in Beijing to restrict the growth of private vehicles. Large trucks were not allowed to enter certain areas in Beijing. Above all, the coal consumption in Beijing has been restricted by shutting down industrial sites and improving heating systems. Beijing’s efforts to improve air quality has also been highly praised by the UN as a successful model for other cities. However, there is also criticism pointing out that the improvement of Beijing’s air quality is based on the sacrifice of surrounding provinces (including Hebei), as many factories were moved from Beijing to other regions. Besides air pollution, there are other environmental problems like water pollution that China is facing. The industrial transformation is the key to China’s environmental improvement.

This dataset is part of the Monash, UEA & UCR time series regression repository. http://tseregression.org/

The goal of this dataset is to predict PM2.5 air quality in the city of Beijing. This dataset contains 17532 time series with 9 dimensions. This includes hourly air pollutants measurments (SO2, NO2, CO and O3), temperature, pressure, dew point, rainfall and windspeed measurments from 12 nationally controlled air quality monitoring sites. The air-quality data are from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. The meteorological data in each air-quality site are matched with the nearest weather station from the China Meteorological Administration. The time period is from March 1st, 2013 to February 28th, 2017.

Please refer to https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Beijing+Multi-Site+Air-Quality+Data for more details

Relevant Papers
Zhang, S., Guo, B., Dong, A., He, J., Xu, Z. and Chen, S.X. (2017) Cautionary Tales on Air-Quality Improvement in Beijing. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Volume 473, No. 2205, Pages 20170457

Citation Request
Zhang, S., Guo, B., Dong, A., He, J., Xu, Z. and Chen, S.X. (2017) Cautionary Tales on Air-Quality Improvement in Beijing. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Volume 473, No. 2205, Pages 20170457

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China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region data was reported at 44.000 mcg/Cub m in May 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 52.000 mcg/Cub m for Apr 2018. China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region data is updated monthly, averaging 68.000 mcg/Cub m from Mar 2013 (Median) to May 2018, with 61 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 151.000 mcg/Cub m in Feb 2014 and a record low of 37.000 mcg/Cub m in Aug 2016. China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by China National Environmental Monitoring Centre. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Environmental Protection – Table CN.EPJ: Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Region.

As of May 2025, the average monthly air quality index in Beijing stood at **, which is within the ********** range, making it one of the months with better air quality compared to the rest of the year. Air Pollution in Beijing For years, Beijing has earned a notorious reputation for having air quality detrimental to health. For the same survey period, Beijing has the worst average air quality among other Chinese cities such as Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenyang. The pollution caused by PM2.5 has been worsening since 2008 as the manufacturing industry around the capital grew and the demand for energy and heat increased. However, since the government began to tackle the issue, pollution levels in Beijing have improved significantly. Causes of air pollution in China and tackling the root cause Much of the air pollution in China is associated with the burning of coal, especially in the industrial sector, and transportation. With the emergence of the public health concern, the Chinese government also introduced plans to ease the air pollution, including setting targets for fine particulate matter, completion of construction and renovation of pollution control facilities, introducing vehicle control, and electrifying the fleet of public buses. In addition, the popularity and prevalence of electric vehicles also contributed to the reduced exhaust fume-based pollution.

China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Vicinity (55 City) data was reported at 36.000 mcg/Cub m in Sep 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 35.000 mcg/Cub m for Aug 2018. China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Vicinity (55 City) data is updated monthly, averaging 38.000 mcg/Cub m from Jun 2018 (Median) to Sep 2018, with 4 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 42.000 mcg/Cub m in Jun 2018 and a record low of 35.000 mcg/Cub m in Aug 2018. China Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Monthly Average: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Vicinity (55 City) data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by China National Environmental Monitoring Centre. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Environmental Protection – Table CN.EPJ: Air Quality: PM2.5 Concentration: Region.

In 2024, the average concentration of PM10 decreased by around *** percent in Jing-Jin-Ji Metropolitan Area around Beijing, China. The air quality of China has been gradually improving after years of effort put into anti-air pollution measures.

Beijing Air Pollution Over Time

Measuring Weather Impact over the Course of Five Years

By UCI [source]

About this dataset

This dataset contains detailed air pollution observations over Beijing. The data, collected and organized by Song Xi Chen at the Guanghua School of Management, Center for Statistical Science of Peking University, records a variety of measurements including PM2.5 concentration (a marker for fine particles not visible to the naked eye), temperature (in Celsius), pressure (in millibars), dew point (in Celsius), combined wind direction, accumulated snow hours and accumulated rain hours. This comprehensive dataset provides an in-depth exploration into the severity of Beijing’s PM2.5 pollution - from its effect on regional weather patterns to its contribution to harmful particulates in the atmosphere such as Black Carbon. With this information on fine particles and air quality conditions at their disposal, researchers can gain invaluable insight into improving urban environments and mitigating health risks associated with elevated levels of fine particles in our cities’ air quality today

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Research Ideas

• Creating an interactive map that shows the changes of PM2.5 concentration over a period of time.
• Developing a machine learning model to predict future PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing based on current weather data and previous data points in the dataset.
• Training a deep neural network to detect potential correlations between wind direction, dew point, precipitation and air pressure with changes in air quality over time

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

See the dataset description for more information.

Columns

File: PRSA_data_2010.1.1-2014.12.31.csv | Column name | Description | |:--------------|:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | No | Row number (Integer). | | year | Year of data in this row (Integer). | | month | Month of data in this row (Integer). | | day | Day of data in this row (Integer). | | hour | Hour of data in this row (Integer). | | pm2.5 | PM2.5 concentration (ug/m3) (Float). | | DEWP | Dew Point (℃) (Float). | | TEMP | Temperature (℃) (Float). | | PRES | Pressure (hPa) (Float). | | cbwd | Combined wind direction (String, limited to 3 categories NNE, NE, ENE, ESE, SE...) | | Iws | Cumulated wind speed (m/s) (Float). | | Is | Cumulated hours of snow (Float). | | Ir | Cumulated hours of rain (Float) |

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. If you use this dataset in your research, please credit UCI.

The statistic shows a distribution of air quality in Beijing based on the PM2.5 Air Quality Index (AQI) between ********** and *********. During that period, air quality in Beijing was considered good on *** percent of days.

Analysis of ‘ Beijing PM2.5 Data Data Set ’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/djhavera/beijing-pm25-data-data-set on 13 February 2022.

--- No further description of dataset provided by original source ---

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Dataset

This dataset was created by stawary

Released under Other (specified in description)

Contents

Context

Hourly data set considers 6 main air pollutants and 6 relevant meteorological variables at multiple sites in Beijing.

Content

I created this dataset in Tableau Prep 2020.1 using the Beijing Multi-Site Air-Quality Data Data Set and FiveCitiePMData.

Acknowledgements

FiveCitiePMData was donated to UCI Machine Learning Repository https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/PM2.5+Data+of+Five+Chinese+Cities

Beijing Multi-Site Air-Quality Data Data Set https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Beijing+Multi-Site+Air-Quality+Data

Inspiration

Song Xi Chen, csx '@' gsm.pku.edu.cn, Guanghua School of Management, Center for Statistical Science, Peking University.

ChinaHighPM2.5 is one of the series of long-term, full-coverage, high-resolution, and high-quality datasets of ground-level air pollutants for China (i.e., ChinaHighAirPollutants, CHAP). This dataset is generated from MODIS/Terra+Aqua MAIAC AOD products together with other auxiliary data (e.g., ground-based measurements, satellite remote sensing products, atmospheric reanalysis, and model simulations) using the linear mixed effect (LME) model.

This is the MODIS/Terra+Aqua monthly 1 km ground-level PM2.5 dataset in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2000 to 2018, and this dataset yields a high quality with a cross-validation coefficient of determination (CV-R2) reaching 0.85 and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 21.49 µg m-3 on a daily basis.

If you use this dataset for related scientific research, please cite the corresponding reference (Xue et al., 2021, JCP):

Xue, W., Zhang, J., Zhong, C., Li, X., and Wei, J. Spatiotemporal PM2.5 variations and its response to the industrial structure from 2000 to 2018 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021, 279, 123742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123742

More CHAP datasets of different air pollutants can be found at: https://weijing-rs.github.io/product.html

In 2023, the average concentration of PM 2.5 was around 32 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing, China. The air quality of China has been gradually improving after years of effort put into anti-air pollution measures.

Ambient air pollution alone accounts for more than 3 million premature deaths worldwide. Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) account for most (~87%) of this disease burden. Air pollution in the megacities of these countries has risen to the levels of public health hazards forcing the cities to take emergency measures, such as issuing red alerts and vehicle-rationing interventions (VRI). Using in-situ and high-resolution satellite data, this research examines the efficacy of VRI in Delhi and Beijing, two of the most polluted cities of LMIC. This research shows that VRI reduced particulate matter (PM) ≤ 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, such interventions implemented in 2015 and 2016 in Beijing and in 2016 in Delhi were ineffective in improving air quality. Moreover, the effects of such interventions were short lived, for example 54% of the cleaning in Beijing disappeared within 2 weeks after the Olympics, and Delhi witnessed a 34% increase in PM2.5 during the 2 weeks after the interventions. Both cities observed excess cardiopulmonary mortality even during the interventions. Short- and long-term preventive and mitigation strategies are needed to manage the air pollution disease burden.

This dataset contains chemical composition measurements of PM2.5 particles made at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics land station (IAP), Beijing site during the winter APHH-Beijing campaign for the Atmospheric Pollution & Human Health in a Chinese Megacity (APHH) programme. Daily fine particles were collected on the PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) filters using the Partisol samplers. The filters were then analysed for metals using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), and for ion species using Ion Chromatography. Quartz filters were collected by Tisch high vol, samplers and then were analysed for organic and elemental carbons using the DRI Model 2015 Multiwavelength Thermal/Optical Carbon Analyser, and organic tracers using Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Dataset

This dataset was created by Greencow

Contents

Performance of Air Discussion Index in estimating observed PM2.5.

The global average concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5) was 24.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air (μg/m3) in 2022. This not only represented a decline of 17 percent from 2010 levels but was also the lowest concentration of this pollutant recorded since the turn of the century. Despite the significant decline, PM2.5 levels in 2022 were still five times above WHO air quality guidelines. China cleans up its air China has been a key driver of the global decline in air pollution in recent years, with annual PM2.5 levels in the country falling by more than 40 percent since 2014 – the year the Chinese government declared war on air pollution. The country’s capital city has seen considerable improvements in its air quality, with average PM2.5 levels in Beijing more than halving over the past decade. Improved air quality monitoring networks, low emissions zones, and the increased uptake of electric vehicles are just some of the ways the country has tackled air pollution. Air pollution's impact on health Governments around the world have been battling air pollution not only because of its environmental imapcts, but also due its adverse effects on human health. In fact, air pollution is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, with more than eight million deaths attributed to this risk factor each year. Heart disease, strokes, and lung cancer are just some of the causes of premature deaths related to air pollution.

This dataset contains atmospheric ion concentrations in PM2.5 particles made at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics land station, IAP-Beijing, site using a High Volume Sampler (Ecotech 3000, Australia) and a Dionex ICS-1100 Ion Chromatography System, during the summer and winter APHH-Beijing campaign for the Atmospheric Pollution & Human Health in a Chinese Megacity (APHH) programme.