Countries by Adjusted savings: particulate emission damage (% of GNI)
Somalia ranks 1st for particulate emission damage at 7.09% of GNI in 2021, meaning air pollution-related premature deaths cost the equivalent of more than 7% of its entire economy. Sweden, at the opposite end, records just 0.009% of GNI. The roughly 780-fold gap reflects how unevenly this form of environmental damage falls across countries at different income and development levels.
Ranking 2021
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures the economic cost of particulate emissions damage as a share of gross national income (GNI), expressed in percent. A lower percentage indicates less damage relative to the size of the economy, so higher ranks in this metric correspond to worse outcomes. The indicator covers damage due to exposure of a country's population to ambient concentrations of particulates measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5), ambient ozone pollution, and indoor concentrations of PM2.5 in households cooking with solid fuels; damages are calculated as foregone labor income due to premature death. The dataset covers 176 countries using World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code NY.ADJ.DPEM.GN.ZS), with 160 of 176 countries (90.9%) reporting 2021 data and 174 of 176 (98.9%) reporting data from within the last seven years. All 176 data points are classified as official-quality. The range runs from 0.01% to 7.09%, a spread of over 78,000%, and 16 extreme outliers were identified at the 3-standard-deviation threshold.
The top of the ranking is dominated by sub-Saharan African nations and fragile states. Somalia ranks 1st at 7.09%, nearly double the 2nd-ranked country, South Sudan, at 3.24%. Chad follows at rank 3 with 3.21%, and Mali (rank 4, 2.42%) and Niger (rank 5, 2.40%) complete the top five. Pakistan is the highest-ranked non-African country outside this group at rank 6 with 2.32%, and India appears at rank 31 with 1.18%. Countries near the top of this list tend to combine high rates of household solid fuel use with limited income bases, meaning even moderate absolute health costs translate into large shares of GNI.
In the middle of the ranking, countries show a broad spread from roughly 0.3% to 0.7% of GNI. China ranks 74th at 0.477%, Thailand ranks 81st at 0.381%, and South Africa ranks 80th at 0.400%. One notable placement is Vanuatu at rank 7 with 2.31%, higher than many larger and poorer continental nations, which stands out given its small and isolated Pacific context. At the lower end, high-income countries cluster tightly below 0.10%: the United States ranks 150th at 0.066%, Germany ranks 152nd at 0.061%, and Australia ranks 171st at 0.020%. Norway ranks 175th at 0.013%, just above Sweden's 176th-place value of 0.009%.
Several limitations affect interpretation of this metric. Damages are calculated solely as foregone labor income due to premature death, which means non-fatal health impacts, reduced productivity from illness, and healthcare costs are excluded. Countries with large informal economies or where labor income is difficult to measure may have systematically understated damage values. The indoor PM2.5 component relies on estimates of household cooking fuel use, which may lag actual conditions. Rankings are sensitive to GNI denominators: a country with a shrinking economy may record a rising damage share even with no change in pollution levels. Somalia's outlier status at 7.09% — more than twice the next-ranked country — warrants particular caution, as it reflects both high estimated health impacts and an exceptionally low GNI base.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NY.ADJ.DPEM.GN.ZS, for the reference year 2021. The indicator is defined as follows: particulate emissions damage is the damage due to exposure of a country's population to ambient concentrations of particulates measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5), ambient ozone pollution, and indoor concentrations of PM2.5 in households cooking with solid fuels; damages are calculated as foregone labor income due to premature death. The ranking covers 176 countries. Of these, 160 (90.9%) report data for the 2021 reference year, and 174 of 176 (98.9%) have data from within the last seven years. All 176 data points are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The value range is 0.01% to 7.09%, representing a spread of over 78,000%. Statistical analysis identified 16 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 5.0%, well within the 50% volatility threshold, indicating stable time-series data. The unit is percent of GNI, where lower values indicate less relative economic damage from particulate emissions.