Are Australians breathing cleaner air?

PM2.5 trends, 1990–2023

Chaniru Amarasekara (s4066967)
Assignment 3 — Storytelling with Open Data

28 October 2025

Are Australians breathing cleaner air?

A compact data story using open data (Our World in Data) and best-practice visualisation.

  • Design goal: help a general Australian audience understand long-term PM2.5 trends, compare Australia with peers, and interpret bushfire-related smoke impacts—without alarmism.
  • Key question: Has air quality improved, and how do we compare internationally?


Use </> to navigate the slideshow.

Audience, goal & caveats

Target audience: informed public, students, local decision-makers

What is PM2.5? Fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter – small enough to travel deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream.

Design goal: clear long-run PM2.5 story for Australia + international context

Caveats / ethics

  • Country averages mask local hotspots and vulnerable groups
  • Annual means hide short, harmful spikes
  • Descriptive trends ≠ causal inference
  • Integrity: open data, reproducible code, no deceptive scales

Data & method (open, reproducible)

Primary source: Our World in Data (OWID) annual PM2.5 by country. If online fetch fails, I keep a local fallback (pm25-air-pollution.csv) in my project root.

Metric (PM2.5): annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 µm in diameter, measured in µg/m³.

Reference: WHO 2021 guideline = 5 µg/m³.

Long-term trend — Australia

Interpretation: Australia’s PM2.5 has dropped from the early 1990s and now usually sits around 6–7 µg/m³, close to the WHO line, with sharp jumps in smoky bushfire seasons.

Where do we stand now? (latest snapshot vs peers)

Takeaway: Australia and New Zealand sit toward the cleaner, lower-PM2.5 end of this peer group, ahead of larger economies like the US and Japan.

Global context over time

Context: Many populous neighbours remain well above the WHO guideline; Australia sits much lower by comparison, highlighting the air-quality advantage we currently enjoy.

How do we compare to the WHO guideline?

Interpretation: Australia sits extremely close to the WHO guideline on average; for most others, typical PM2.5 levels are several µg/m³ higher, indicating more scope for air-quality improvement.

Key takeaways

What matters most

  • Australia’s PM2.5 is low by peer standards, but not always below the WHO 5 µg/m³ line.
  • Bushfire seasons can still cause noticeable smoke spikes, even when typical levels are moderate.
  • Policy needs to focus on preparedness for extreme smoke and protecting at-risk groups during those spikes.

References