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2025 Milwaukee Air Quality Report
2025 Milwaukee Air Quality Report
Exploring the Connection Between Air, Health, and Equity in Our Neighborhoods
Exploring the Connection Between Air, Health, and Equity in Our Neighborhoods
At MKE FreshAir Collective, we believe everyone has the right to breathe clean air — and the right to know when that air is unsafe. We’re proud to release the 2025 Milwaukee Air Quality Report, our most comprehensive look yet at how air pollution affects health, daily life, and environmental justice across Milwaukee.
This report brings together data from 27 neighborhood-based air quality sensors across the City of Milwaukee, along with local health, demographic, and environmental data, to help residents, decision-makers, public health leaders, and advocates better understand what is in our air — and what we can do about it.
Our sensors are intentionally placed in neighborhoods that have historically experienced higher environmental burdens, systemic disinvestment, health disparities, and limited access to localized air quality information. By collecting and sharing neighborhood-level data, we are helping close long-standing gaps in awareness, visibility, and action around air quality conditions in Milwaukee.
What’s Inside the Report
The 2025 Milwaukee Air Quality Report focuses on Air Quality Index, or AQI, which helps explain how clean or polluted the air is and what health risks may be present. The report also examines PM2.5, a form of fine particle pollution that is especially harmful because it can travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream, contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular problems.
In 2025, Milwaukee experienced significant smoke pollution from wildfires in Canada and the western United States. The report takes a closer look at how wildfire smoke affected air quality across the city, including the 20 days when Air Quality Alerts were issued in Milwaukee. While air quality was poor across the city during these events, the data shows that wildfire smoke did not affect every neighborhood the same way. Some areas experienced consistently worse air quality than others, underscoring the importance of neighborhood-level monitoring.
The report also compares air quality across different parts of Milwaukee, highlighting neighborhoods where sensors most often recorded better or worse air quality.
This year’s report also reflects an important expansion in our monitoring work. In addition to AQI and PM2.5, MKE FreshAir Collective has begun installing near-reference sensors to increase our ability to monitor ozone and nitrogen dioxide — pollutants that can have serious impacts on respiratory and cardiovascular health, especially for children, older adults, and people living with asthma or other pre-existing health conditions.
Why This Matters
Clean air is foundational to health. Access to reliable, timely, and local air quality data is one of the first steps toward protecting it. We hope this report helps Milwaukee residents better understand the air they breathe, supports stronger public health decision-making, and moves us closer to a future where every community has the information and resources needed to breathe easier.
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