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India accounted for 27% of all deaths attributed to pollution with 2.5 million deaths in 2015, according to a global study. China, with 1.8 million, had the second-most deaths, and accounted for 20% of all pollution deaths.

One in every four deaths (24.4%) in India in 2015 was related to pollution, the study revealed.

Source: Global Burden of Disease, 2015

Pollution was responsible for nine million premature deaths in 2015--16% of all deaths worldwide--three times more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined and 15 times more than all wars and other forms of violence, according to the ’Commission on Pollution and Health’ study published in the medical journal Lancet on October 19, 2017.

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Source: The Lancet

Pollution disproportionately affected the poor and vulnerable, since 92% of all deaths due to pollution occur in low and middle income countries. Pollution also affected productivity in these countries, reducing their gross domestic product by 2% per year, the study estimated.

(Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

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Swagata Yadavar

    Swagata Yadavar is an award-winning independent journalist based in New Delhi. She writes on public policy, healthcare and gender related themes. Previously, she worked with ThePrint, IndiaSpend and The Week. Her bylines appear in Cancer World, Al Jazeera, Business Insider, Article 14, Scroll, Behenbox among others.