Emissions of air pollutants
An annual publication covering the emissions of some important air pollutants.
Documents
Details
This publication provides estimates of UK emissions of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, ammonia, non-methane volatile organic compounds and sulphur dioxide.
These estimates are used to monitor progress against the UK’s emission reduction targets for air pollutants. Emission reductions in the UK, alongside a number of other factors such as the weather, contribute to improvements in air quality in the UK and other countries. For more information on air quality data and information please refer to the air quality and emissions statistics GOV.UK page.
The National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website contains information on anthropogenic UK emissions and compilation methods for a wide range of air pollutants; as well as hosting a number of reports including the Devolved Administrations’ Air Quality Pollutant Inventories.
The methodology to estimate emissions is continuously reviewed and developed to take account of new data sources, emission factors and modelling methods. This means the whole emissions time series from 1990 to the reporting year is revised annually.
Please note: Due to methodological updates and improvements which are routinely carried out each year, the data and trends discussed here are not directly comparable to those published in previous iterations of this Accredited Official Statistics release. More information can be found in the accompanying Methods Document. For year-on-year changes in emissions, the trends presented within this document and the accompanying statistical tables should be used.
If you do wish to see the impact of these methodological changes, you can access previous editions of this publication via The National Archives or the links below. As it takes time to compile and analyse the data from many different sources, this statistic publication is produced with a 2-year delay from the reporting year, meaning that this year’s inventory represents the reporting year 2023.
Please email us with your feedback to help us make the publication more valuable to you.
2024
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2022
Published: 14 February 2024
2023
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2021
Published: 18 February 2023
2022
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2020
Published: 14 February 2022
2021
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2019
Published: 12 February 2021
2020
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2018
Published: 14 February 2020
2019
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2017
Published: 15 February 2019
2018
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2016
Published: 15 February 2018
2016
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2015
Published: 21 December 2016
2015
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2014
Published: 17 December 2015
2014
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2013
Published: 18 December 2014
2013
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2012
Published: 18 December 2013
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2011 (original and revised versions)
Published: 1 August 2013
2012
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2010 – Supplementary results
Published: 13 February 2012
2011
Emissions of air pollutants in the UK, 1970 to 2010
Published: 15 December 2011
UK emissions of air pollutants: 2009 (first and additional results)
Published: 10 February 2011
2010
UK emissions of air pollutants: 2008 (first and additional results)
Published: 11 February 2010
2009
UK emissions of air pollutants: 2007 (first and additional results)
Published: 13 February 2009
2008
UK emissions of air pollutants: 2006 results
Published: 13 March 2008
Defra statistics: Air Quality and Industrial Emissions
Updates to this page
Published 18 December 2012Last updated 13 February 2025 + show all updates
-
Annual update.
-
Link to 2021 data amended.
-
Amended text in paragraph on particulate matter in the summary attachment.
-
Annual update.
-
Broken link fixed.
-
Link to summary page added in each HTML attachment.
-
Figures for 2021 Statistical release published
-
Opening paragraph removed. Also one sentence amended in the sulphur dioxide (SO2) attachment.
-
New annual publication.
-
The URLs to each HTML page within this release were updated to remove legacy components that were initially included in the URLs when the publication was first published in the HTML format last year. The new URLs will ensure that no further changes to the URLs will be required in future updates to the publication.
-
URL link amended.
-
Typo.
-
New publication for 2021 containing data from 1970 to 2019 inclusive.
-
Amended PDF attachment now with complete data uploaded and republished.
-
Various amendments made to figures.
-
This publication has been updated to address accessibility issues. Changes include modification of alt text, improvement to the colour contrast of figures, removal of merged cells in tables, and tweaks to formatting such as subscripting and HTML links. Some of the text has been reworded to improve clarity and understanding, but no changes have been made to the statistics since the initial publication in February.
-
Amendments to text on emissions of air pollutants statistical release page.
-
Annual update.
-
Annual update.
-
Annual update to publication.
-
Annual update figures published 1970 to 2014
-
Latest statistical release 1970 to 2013.
-
Figures for 2012 published
-
added note on Devolved Administrations inventory release is September.
-
First published.