Celebrating 10 years of OpenAQ

OpenAQ was the first to aggregate disparate ground-level ambient air quality data on a centralized open-source platform, making the data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. We started aggregating real-time and historical data from reference-grade government monitors in 2015 and began aggregating data from air sensors in 2021. Data on OpenAQ are used to inform science and enable research; to raise awareness and understanding; to spur, form, analyze, assess and enforce solutions; to predict and forecast; to educate; and more! The OpenAQ platform remains the largest open-source, open-access air quality data platform in the world with over 2 billion data points from 20,700 locations in 134 countries as of September 2025!

September 9, 2025 marks OpenAQ’s tenth anniversary. As we celebrate this momentous milestone, we thank everyone who has and is helping us achieve our vision of a world where everyone breathes healthy air, enabled by universal access to data. As we look back and as we look forward, we recognize YOU as the driving force behind our work.

Organizational Milestones

Christa Hasenkopf and Joe Flasher founded OpenAQ and began aggregating reference monitor data. By November, OpenAQ had aggregated its 1 millionth datapoint. Our first workshop–held in Ulaanbaaatar, Mongolia–generated ideas for how air quality data could be used for education, public notifications, and scientist/journalist exchanges.

2015

2016

Finding and adding data to the platform was an entirely volunteer effort during OpenAQ’s first couple of years. In addition, community members built API wrappers and other tools to help users with data ingestion, analysis and visualization. OpenAQ’s second workshop in Delhi, India demonstrated how convening professionals across sectors sparks creative, impactful uses of data to address air inequality. We organized our first hackathon in Washington, DC and began building relationships with data practitioners via conferences and presentations. An Echoing Green Fellowship supported scaling, and we worked with companies like Development Seed to expand OpenAQ’s underlying technical infrastructure to meet new data demands.

The US Environmental Protection Agency and European Environmental Agency improved their data-sharing systems after users of OpenAQ noticed discrepancies. Participants in OpenAQ’s Sarajevo, Bosnia workshop presented a Community Statement to the Bosnian Parliament and launched an air quality research project to pinpoint policy-relevant air pollution sources. OpenAQ was among seven finalists for the US National Institute of Health and Wellcome Trust’s Open Science Prize and six finalists for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

2017

2018

OpenAQ became a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, guided by a volunteer Board of Directors. Participants in OpenAQ’s Accra, Ghana workshop developed and delivered to decision-makers a community statement on air quality. OpenAQ’s Nairobi, Kenya workshop resulted in a call for action in Africa’s premiere clean air journal. OpenAQ began partnering on data-related projects with major organizations such as Environmental Defense Fund, Vital Strategies, and World Resources Institute.

Participants in the OpenAQ Pristina, Kosovo workshop developed a Challenge Statement to drive post-workshop action. OpenAQ launched an Advisory Board. OpenAQ was chosen for the Fast Forward Accelerator program, won a New York Times Good Tech Award, and was among top five finalists for the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award.

2019

2020

OpenAQ released its first global assessment of whether and how national governments are producing and sharing air quality data with the public. (See Publications for these biennial assessments.) Given the pandemic, OpenAQ shifted to virtual outreach and engagement.

Through partnerships, OpenAQ added our first air sensor data to the platform. We piloted our unique air quality training program for emerging air quality leaders in low- and middle-income countries, the OpenAQ Clean Air Community Ambassadors program, launching it as an annual program in 2023. We began participating in new multiyear partnership projects, including the Clean Air Catalyst and Predicting What We Breathe.

2021

2022

Major (and ongoing) improvements to the platform increased its stability, reliability and resilience, along with continual improvements to documentation to ensure users know how to work efficiently with data on OpenAQ. We joined Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), serving in multiple collaboration areas since then, and endorsed the Open Data Charter.

OpenAQ released OpenAQ Explorer and an in-house Python SDK. With added capacity, we increased community engagement significantly and have held steady since then, including hosting trainings and webinars; speaking at forums and moderating panels; and participating in, organizing and presenting at conferences. As one example of how OpenAQ supports policy, we informed a US Government Accountability Office technology assessment of low-cost sensors.

2023

2024

OpenAQ launched the AQI Hub, a first-of-its-kind website that demystifies the opaque nature of Air Quality Indexes across the world. The addition of a lists tool to OpenAQ Explorer enables users to track specific locations. OpenAQ began participating in the UN Climate and Clean Air Coalition, contributing to their Air Quality Management Exchange Platform. We won a Global Tech Award in the NonProfitTech category.

Eight companies now facilitate data sharing with OpenAQ, and we are aggregating data from the first projects funded by the EPIC Air Quality Fund. We launched v3.0 of the OpenAQ API and an R client. OpenAQ began co-leading Clean Air COMPASS, a project to develop an open-source air quality data management system. We became a UNICEF Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative partner.

2025

Platform Growth

The OpenAQ platform is continuously growing, with over 2 billion data points from 20,700 locations in 134 countries as of September 2025!

20,700 total locations from which data is aggregated

Map of the world showing all locations on OpenAQ filled in purple.

14 average new scientific and media uses each month

134 Countries from which OpenAQ is aggregating data

Map of the world showing all the countries covered by data on OpenAQ filled in purple.

553 scientific and technical publications and proceedings citing use of OpenAQ since our inception

2,043 locations in low- and middle-income countries

Map of the world showing all theLMIC countries covered by data on OpenAQ filled in purple.

Looking forward

OpenAQ is committed to making air quality data universally accessible and to strategically increasing the amount and types of air quality data that go into the platform.

See our technical roadmap here and be on the lookout for the release of our new 3-year strategic direction later this year.

Support us

By providing universal access to air quality data, OpenAQ empowers a global community of changemakers to solve air inequality. Having you as a partner in this mission will allow us to sustain and expand the platform, provide tools and training to facilitate successful use, and increase data fluency among emerging air quality leaders in some of the most polluted regions on the planet. With your support, OpenAQ can continue to provide essential infrastructure for one of the most critical challenges of our time.

Make a donation here.
Learn about sponsorship opportunities here.

OpenAQ has earned the highest ratings for transparency, cost-effectiveness and overall organizational health.

Thank You for 10 Amazing Years! 🎉🎉

Thank you to everyone who uses data on OpenAQ. Your efforts are solving air inequality.

Thank you to every institution and individual who shares their air quality data with the world via OpenAQ. Your commitment to open data enables folks across all sectors to be part of the solution through data-driven analyses, communications and mitigation strategies.

Thank you to our founders, everyone who has served on our governing board and advisory board, our interns and volunteers, and individuals who have made financial contributions to OpenAQ.

Thank you to the foundations, corporations and institutions that have provided financial or in-kind support, including Actions@EBMF, AirGradient, ATMO, AWS, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Burr Forman LLP, Change Happens Foundation, Clarity, Clean Air Fund, ClimateWorks, Deloitte Health Equity Initiative, Development Seed, Earth Journalism Network, Echoing Green, Environmental Defense Fund, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, Ernst & Young, Fast Forward, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Geocode Earth, George Mason University, GitHub, Godley Family Foundation, HPE Foundation Accelerating Impact Campaign, Keen IO, Millennium Challenge Corporation, NASA, Nesta, Okta, Open Science Prize, PagerDuty, Paul Hastings LLP, Radiant Earth, Ropes & Gray LLP, Splunk/Cisco, Twilio, Up Here Media, USAID, US Paycheck Protection Program, Vital Strategies, World Bank Group and World Resources Institute.