Study: San Antonio ranks among nation’s worst cities for air pollution

San Antonio’s air quality stinks so bad that breathing here last year was the equivalent of smoking 144 cigarettes, according to new study by air-purifier company HouseFresh, which ranks our city among the nation’s worst for air pollution.

Researchers analyzed pollution in the nation’s largest cities by collecting 2024 air-quality data from the Environmental Protection Agency. They then used an equation from environmental data agency Berkeley Earth to convert each city’s air quality to smoking an equivalent number of cigarettes.

San Antonio ranked as having the seventh-worst air quality last year, according to the report, placing it in a tie with Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Oklahoma City.

Boise, Idaho, had the nation’s worst 2024 air quality, the study found. However, that ranking is largely due to last summer’s wildfires that burned through the Pacific Northwest.

HouseFresh’s study isn’t the first to call out the Alamo City for its poor air quality.

In May, an American Lung Association report listed the San Antonio area as the U.S. metro with the 20th-worst ozone pollution last year.

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This article appears in Jul 10-23, 2025.