This Gorgeous City Has the Cleanest Air in the U.S. and Europe, According to a New Report

Reykjavik took the No. 1 spot.

By Stacey Leasca Stacey Leasca

Stacey Leasca is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Be a Travel Writer, an online course for the next generation of travel journalists. Her photos, videos, and words have appeared in print or online for Travel + Leisure, Time, Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many more. You'll usually find her in an airport. If you do see her there, please say hello. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Published on October 18, 2024

Close Cityscape of Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland with the volcanic mountain range Esjan. Photo:

VictorHuang/GETTY IMAGES

If you’re looking for a true breath of fresh air in the most literal sense, the pros at QR Code Generator have a new study you’re going to want to see. In September, the team unveiled the findings of its newest study, which showed which U.S. and European destinations have the lowest pollution rates, offering the cleanest air possible for travelers and locals alike. 

To assess each city’s air quality, the team began by creating a list of all the cities in the U.S. and Europe. Next, the team input the list into the Google Keyword Planner and combined each city with travel-related terms, including city “break,” “holiday,” and “vacation rental,” to find which were the most searched for between July 2023 and June 2024. After narrowing down the list to the most searched, it then found the air quality scores for the top cities using iqair.com.  

It then ranked the cities based on air quality, noting "the better the air quality, the lower the score. Therefore, a ranking was created based on which cities with over 10,000 average monthly searches had the lowest air quality scores." 

After looking at all the data, it named Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, the top city for air quality. 

"Reykjavik takes the top spot, with an air quality score of six. Iceland’s largest city and capital received 10,913 average monthly searches for city breaks, as it offers a wide range of tourist activities while maintaining low pollution levels," the team noted in the findings. 

It was followed by another northern city, Anchorage Alaska, which came in second thanks to its high search volume (19,563 average month searches) and healthy air quality.  

These two were joined by Oslo, Norway, in third, along with New Castle, United Kingdom; Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh; Scotland; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Newark, New Jersey; Tromsø, Norway; West Palm Beach, Florida; Stockholm, Sweden; Reno, Nevada and Helsinki, Finland in the top spots. 

“City breaks offer a culturally rich vacation experience; however, pollution can cause concern for tourists. With high pollution rates in popular cities such as New York and Paris, we are delighted to see many cities maintaining substantial air quality," Marc Porcar, the CEO of QR Code Generator, added in the findings. “Poor air quality can be harmful to children and those with asthma, and exposure to pollution can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness for everyone. That’s why we recommend that those craving a city break this fall and winter select from our ranking and explore underrated cities that should keep you in good health following your visit.”