Category: 🌎 Destinations

On hot summer days in London, UK I regularly walk along some of the most trafficked streets (vehicles). Whilst the pollution is not always visible, I can clearly smell the exhaust fumes of the passing busses and feel it settling on my skin. It does not surprise me reading articles with titles including, “London’s Air is as Bad as Smoking” (credited for the title of this post).

Pollution is arguably the biggest hazard to human health today, especially in our cities (although Donald Trump doesn’t agree). With this concern in my mind, I wanted to uncover some of the worst places for my health to visit.

What is PM 2.5 and PM 10?

Particle pollution, also called particulate matter (PM), is a mixture of solids and liquid droplets floating in the air. Some particles are released directly from a specific source, while others form in complicated chemical reactions in the atmosphere.

• • Coarse dust particles (PM₁₀) are 2.5 to 10 micrometers in diameter. Sources include crushing or grinding operations and dust stirred up by vehicles on roads.
  • Fine particles (PM_2.5) are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, and can only be seen with an electron microscope. Fine particles are produced from all types of combustion, including motor vehicles, power plants, residential wood burning, forest fires, agricultural burning, and some industrial processes. PM2.5 particles are considered most damaging to health.

Methodology

The World Health Organisation produce a Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database (data from 2016 update). The primary sources of data for this are official reporting from countries to WHO, official national / subnational reports and national / subnational web sites containing measurements of PM10 or PM2.5 and the relevant national agencies. The dataset covers 2972 cities from 184 countries.

Analysis

PM2.5 pollution levels by country

Interactive map.

Top 10 countries by total PM2.5 pollution level

Country	PM2.5 Urban 2014 mean annual μg/m3	PM2.5 Urban rank 2014	PM2.5 Total Country 2014 mean annual μg/m3	PM2.5 Total Country Rank 2014
Saudi Arabia	127.1	1	107.7	1
Qatar	104.6	2	103.4	2
Egypt	100.6	3	92.8	3
Bangladesh	88.8	4	83.5	4
Kuwait	78.4	7	74.5	5
Cameroon	63.6	12	65.2	6
Mauritania	86.2	5	64.8	7
Nepal	74.3	8	64	8
United Arab Emirates	64.4	11	63.6	9
India	65.7	10	62.4	10

Full table.

Saudi Arabia has levels of PM2.5 pollution in urban areas almost 30% higher than the next most polluted urban areas in Qatar.

For reference, the World Health Organisation recommends 10 μg/m³ (mean annual) as a guideline safe level.

Only 19 of the 179 countries (that reported PM2.5 figures) have equal to or less than the recommended 10 μg/m³ (mean annual) level in urban areas. 20 of the 184 reported countries have total pollution less than this recommendation.

The lowest levels of pollution are found in the Soloman Islands with urban and total PM2.5 levels equal to 5μg/m³. Notably, larger countries including the United States have urban (8.4μg/m³) and total (8.2μg/m³) PM2.5 levels below 10μg/m³.

PM2.5 pollution levels by city (best and worst)

Rank	Country	City/Town	Annual mean, ug/m3
1	Iran (Islamic Republic of)	Zabol	217
2	India	Gwalior	176
3	India	Allahabad	170
4	Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	156
5	Saudi Arabia	Al Jubail	152
6	India	Patna	149
7	India	Raipur	144
8	Cameroon	Bamenda	132
9	China	Xingtai	128
10	China	Baoding	126
		…
2963	United States of America	Not in a City,McKenzie,ND	3.20
2964	Canada	AUCLAIR	3.00
2964	Canada	NORMAN WELLS	3.00
2966	New Zealand	Te Anau	2.73
2967	United States of America	Not in a City,Custer,SD	2.40
2968	United States of America	Not in a City,Converse,WY	2.30
2969	Sweden	KIRUNA	2.27
2970	Finland	Muonio	2.21
2971	United States of America	Wenden, AZ	2.00
2972	United States of America	Sinclair,Carbon,WY	1.60

Full list.

Zabol, Iran is the worst polluted city according to the World Health Organisations Air Pollution database by some margin (217 ug/m3 annual mean, 2000% above WHO safe recommended levels!).

4 of the top 10 most polluted cities are in India. 32 of all 2972 cities considered have PM2.5 pollution levels above 10μg/m³ mean annual.

At the other end of the spectrum, many of the least polluted areas are not cities, unsurprisingly. 5 of the least polluted 10 areas are all in the US and all have PM2.5 levels way below the 10μg/m³ WHO recommendation.

856 cities considered (of 1972 total) all have less than or equal to 10μg/m³ mean annual PM2.5 pollution.

Improvements

From my brief research it would appear there is some disparity in the way pollution levels are reported. Whilst this analysis provides a good overview to the problem of pollution, it could be worth comparing such analysis to the way data is reported (sensor distributions in countries, etc).

Looking at pollution as a problem, it would also be valuable to compare levels of pollution against population numbers to understand how wide the impact is.

tl;dr

Areas of the Middle East are some of the worst polluted on earth, and most dangerous to your health.

Get the data

1. Data sources + data used in this post.

Travelling between countries can be disorientating. Changes in currency values can be a major contributing factor. A bottle of Coca-Cola might be $1 USD in America, but ﷼14,000 IRR in Iran (only $0.43 USD).

Much of this can be solved using a simple currency conversion app on your phone. After a few days you’ll master the mental arithmetic to perform currency conversions instantly in your head.

Thinking about the value of different currencies, I started to wonder; where could I be a millionaire, or even billionaire?

Methodology

I collected worldwide currency values against the USD from XE.com at 14:00 GMT 19/01/2017 for comparison.

Results

Strongest currencies – GBP vs USD

I couldn’t start this post without mentioning Brexit. Specifically the negative impact it has had on my worldwide purchasing power (I get paid in GBP).

Latest data.

And it’s not just Brexit. My trips to the US are 80% more expensive when compared to 2007, before the housing crisis. As of writing this,  1 USD = 0.8 GBP. Either way, I’m a millionaire in neither currency.

Strongest currencies vs USD

The GBP is one of the strongest currencies against the USD at the moment,

Value rank vs USD	US Dollar	1 USD feb 192017	1 USD inverse feb 192017	1000000 USD feb 192017	1000000 USD inverse feb 19 2017
1	Kuwaiti Dinar	0.305627	3.271965	305627	3271965
2	Bahraini Dinar	0.377039	2.652243	377039	2652243
3	Omani Rial	0.385253	2.595695	385253	2595695
4	Latvian Lat	0.661973	1.510636	661973	1510636
5	British Pound	0.805704	1.24115	805704	1241150
6	Euro	0.941908	1.061675	941908	1061675

Full table.

You probably won’t be a USD millionaire in Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Latvia, or the Euro-zone countries either. In Kuwait 1 million USD is worth around 306K Kuwaiti Dinar. You’d need 3.27 million USD to be a Kuwaiti Dinar millionaire. These are the only 6 major currencies that are currently stronger than the USD.

Weakest Currencies – IRR vs USD

Latest data.

The Iranian Rial is currently the weakest currency against the USD. The currency has an interesting story. The Iranian Rial was devalued in July 2013 to half its previous value as the government reduced subsidisation of the exchange rate against the dollar. Recently, in December 2016, the Iranian government announced the country’s currency will be changed from the rial to the commonly used Toman. As of writing this decision still needs Parliament’s approval.

1 USD will buy you 32420 IRR. 31 USD will buy you 1 million USD. 1 million USD will buy thirty-two billion four hundred twenty million IRR!

Weakest currencies vs USD

Value rank vs USD	US Dollar	1 USD feb 192017	1 USD inverse feb 192017	1000000 USD feb 192017	1000000 USD inverse feb 19 2017
51	Chilean Peso	644.1	0.001553	644100000	1553
52	South Korean Won	1150.45	0.000869	1150450000	869
53	Colombian Peso	2886.5	0.000346	2886500000	346
54	Indonesian Rupiah	13341.1	0.000075	13341100000	75
55	Iranian Rial	32420	0.000031	32420000000	31

Full table.

The Iranian Rial is by far the weakest currency versus the USD. The Indonesian Rupiah comes out second worst with an exchange rate of 1 USD = 13300 IDR. 75 USD would buy you millionaire status in Indonesia.

Improvements

I have completely ignored purchasing power of a currency. As discussed a bottle of Coke in Iran will cost you 14,000 IRR — it wouldn’t be hard to blow 1 million in a single day.

tl;dr

Go to Iran with 31 USD, become a IRR millionaire.

Footnotes

1. Data sources + data used in this post.

We’ve all been on holiday and complained there are too many tourists (the British, anyway).

I once read London was France’s 6th largest city. The Costa Del Sol on the Spain’s Southern Coast is a mecca for 300,000+ Brits seeking the sun each year.

Terms like tourist trap are now common among holiday makers. Though an increasing number of us are actively seeking to avoid such traps. Whole industries have sprung up around holidays “off-the-beaten-track”.

But where are the places with the fewest tourists numbers vs locals?

Methodology

Every year the UN World Tourism Organisation publishes a report titled “Tourism Highlights“. For this post I used the 2015 version (figure reported from 2013). The report contains tourism statistics for 217 countries, including inbound tourist arrivals and receipts. Using this data I was able to identify the countries that report the fewest tourists.

Using population statistics reported by the World Bank for 2013 I was then able to work out the number of inbound tourists compared to the native population of each country.

Analysis

Inbound tourism numbers

Full size map.

Download chart.

Download chart.

Did you know? The 3 countries that received the most tourists in 2013 were: 1. France (83.6 mil arrivals), 2. United States (69.9), and 3. Spain (60.6).

Did you know? The 3 countries that received the fewest tourists in 2013 were: 191. Kiribati (6000 arrivals), 192. Marshall Islands (5000), 193. Tuvalu (1000).

Populations

Full size map.

Download chart.

Download chart.

China and India have a combined population of 2.5 billion. About one-third of the world’s population. India’s population is expected to grow larger than China’s by 2022.

On the other end of the scale Nieu, Montserrat, and the Cook Islands have less than 20,000 native citizens. In total the 10 smallest countries have a combined population of 187,933 people (about the size of Sao Tome and Principe).

Did you know? The 3 countries with the largest populations are: 1. China (1.36 people), 2. India (1.29B), 3. USA (319M). 

Did you know? The 3 countries with the smallest populations are: 214. Tuvalu (9863 people), 215. Montserrat (4900), 216. Niue (1190).

Native Population vs. Tourists

Full size map.

Rank	Destination	Population	Tourists (2013)	Population – tourist diff	Tourist:Population
1	Bangladesh	159,077,513	148,000	158,929,513	1,075
2	Congo, Dem. Rep.	74,877,030	191,000	74,686,030	392
3	Nigeria	177,475,986	600,000	176,875,986	296
4	Guinea	12,275,527	56,000	12,219,527	219
5	India	1,295,291,543	6,968,000	1,288,323,543	186
6	Niger	19,113,728	123,000	18,990,728	155
7	Ethiopia	96,958,732	681,000	96,277,732	142
8	Chad	13,587,053	100,000	13,487,053	136
9	Mali	17,086,022	142,000	16,944,022	120
10	Madagascar	23,571,713	196,000	23,375,713	120

Full ranking.

Bangladesh receives just 1 tourist for every 1075 native Bangladeshis (159M pop / 148K tourists).

Rank	Destination	Population	Tourists (2013)	Population – tourist diff	Tourist:Population
184	Guam	167,543	1,334,000	-1,166,457	0.13
185	Turks and Caicos Islands	33,740	291,000	-257,260	0.12
186	Monaco	37,623	328,000	-290,377	0.11
187	Aruba	103,441	979,000	-875,559	0.11
188	Cook Is	10,900	121,000	-110,100	0.09
189	St. Maarten	40,917	467,000	-426,083	0.09
190	Brit. Virgin Islands	28,054	366,000	-337,946	0.08
191	St. Martin (French part)	31,530	490,000	-458,470	0.06
192	Macao SAR, China	577,914	14,268,000	-13,690,086	0.04
193	Andorra	72,786	2,328,000	-2,255,214	0.03

Full ranking.

Compare that to Andorra, population 73K, has 2.3 million visitors every year — a difference of about 2.2 million! That’s 1 tourist for every 0.03 of the population. In Macao the difference between population and tourists is 13.69 million (1 tourist:0.04 population).

Improvements

Comparing inbound tourists by nationality would add another dimension to this analysis.

tl;dr

The countries with the fewest tourists compared to native population: 1. Bangladesh (1 tourist: 1075 native population), 2. Democratic Republic of Congo (1:392), 3. Nigeria (1:296).

Footnotes

1. Data sources + data used in this post.

“Planting the flag” usually means making a claim to something, usually territory or land.

Throughout history men have “planted the flag” claiming ownership in the name of the king, queen, country, church, etc. marking the land as their own.

If you’re planning to “plant a flag” and claim an area of earth, time is running out. Marie Byrd Land and Bir Tawil Triangle are the only two land areas on Earth not claimed by any country.

The size of a countries land mass can vary for a number of reasons. Historically territorial disputes have seen land won and lost. The biggest risk to a countries land mass in the modern day is the sea, in some cases threatening a countries very existence.

But which countries have changed the most in size over the past 50 years?

Methodology

I used World Bank data that documents each countries land mass yearly since 1961.

To add additional context I used territorial disputes data found on Wikipedia.

Results

Land mass changes

Download chart.

Out of 223 countries, 37 decreased in land mass, 151 had no change and 20 grew.

Download chart.

Most land mass changes were small +/-1K sq. km — about half the size of Monaco.

Overall, total land mass of all countries shrunk 94K sq. km between 1961 and 2014.

Full size map.

Growing countries

Download chart.

Rank land area % change	Country Name	Land area diff (sq. km) 1961 – 2014	Land area % of total 1961 – 2014
1	Macao SAR, China	10.30	51.50
2	Greenland	68,750.00	20.12
3	Bahrain	80.00	11.59
4	Singapore	37.00	5.52
5	Hong Kong SAR, China	30.00	2.94
6	Korea, Rep.	1,006.00	1.04
7	Jordan	540.00	0.61
8	Hungary	490.00	0.54
9	Bosnia and Herzegovina	200.00	0.39
10	Uganda	710.00	0.36

Full ranking.

Greenland’s land mass has increased 68,750 sq. km since 1961 — about the size of the Republic of Ireland. According to World Bank records the increase happened between 1996 and 1997 where land mass went from 341,700 sq. km to 410,450 — a 20% increase. I assume this is because of melting ice being officially recorded between these years.

Although Macao grew by only 10.3 sq. km this is a 50% increase in total land mass over the 53 year period.

Shrinking countries

Download chart.

Rank land area % change	Country Name	Land area diff (sq. km) 1961 – 2014	Land area % of total 1961 – 2014
199	St. Kitts and Nevis	-90.00	-25.71
200	Bhutan	-8,606.00	-18.42
201	Ecuador	-28,480.00	-10.29
202	Ethiopia	-101,000.00	-9.17
203	Vietnam	-15,420.00	-4.74
204	Channel Islands	-4.00	-2.06
205	Bulgaria	-2,070.00	-1.87
206	Seychelles	-5.00	-1.09
207	Cuba	-951.00	-0.89
208	Macedonia, FYR	-210.00	-0.83

Full ranking.

Ethiopia has lost over 100K sq. km of it’s land mass since 1961. The change happened between 1992 and 1993 where land mass went from 1.1M sq. km to 1M — a loss of over 9%!

The list of shrinking countries has 4 small island nations: St Kitts and Nevis, Channel Islands, Seychelles and Cuba. This is probably a result of rising sea levels. St Kitts and Nevis lost over 25% (90 sq. km) of it’s total land mass between 1961 – 2014.

The income factor

Download chart.

It is low income areas that will feel the impacts the most from sea level rise as they are the least prepared (lots of settlements on coast, little funding for protection projects, etc.).

The World Bank’s income segmentation highlights how the low and middle income countries are perhaps already suffering land losses as a result.

In total the world lost -34,218 sq. km of reported land mass between 1961 – 2014 — about a 0.07% total loss.

Territorial disputes

Download chart.

78 countries have multiple active disputes for land. The US has the most active disputes (13), 6 of which are with Canada.

Did you know? France and Italy still dispute ownership of the Mont Blanc summit

Download chart.

In total there are 159 active land disputes across the world.

Improvements

This post offers a very basic look at changing land masses with little context. Significant changes in land mass should be analysed alongside any relevant contextual information – sea level change, conflicts, etc… – to provide information on causation.

tl;dr

Ethiopia has shrunk the most in total land mass between 1961 and 2014 (-101,000 sq.km). St. Kitts and Nevis has shrunk the most as a % of total land mass (-26%).

Footnotes

1. Data sources + data used in this post.