# Counties in New York by highest daily Air Quality Index (US EPA), 2012

All 33 values come from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 2012, so the places are comparable. 6 counties have no value for that period and are not ranked.

- Indicator id: `aqi_max`
- Unit: index
- Definition: Highest daily Air Quality Index (AQI) value recorded in a US county during the year, from the EPA AirData annual summaries. Values above 500 are beyond the AQI scale and are published as EPA computes them.
- Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA AirData annual AQI by county: highest daily AQI (https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html#Annual)
- Publisher page: https://invokely.ai/en/publishers/environmental-protection-agency
- Retrieved: 2026-10-12
- Citation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System, AirData. EPA AirData annual AQI by county: highest daily AQI. https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html#Annual. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/rankings/highest-daily-air-quality-index/new-york-counties

| Rank | Place | index |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Chautauqua County | 197 |
| 2 | Suffolk County | 174 |
| 3 | Niagara County | 169 |
| 4 | Rockland County | 159 |
| 5 | Essex County | 154 |
| 6 | Erie County | 151 |
| 6 | Monroe County | 151 |
| 6 | Westchester County | 151 |
| 9 | Hamilton County | 150 |
| 10 | Richmond County | 147 |
| 11 | Albany County | 143 |
| 11 | Queens County | 143 |
| 13 | Jefferson County | 140 |
| 14 | Bronx County | 133 |
| 14 | Onondaga County | 133 |
| 16 | Wayne County | 126 |
| 17 | New York County | 122 |
| 17 | Oswego County | 122 |
| 19 | Dutchess County | 119 |
| 19 | Putnam County | 119 |
| 21 | Chemung County | 115 |
| 21 | Tompkins County | 115 |
| 23 | Oneida County | 108 |
| 23 | Rensselaer County | 108 |
| 23 | Saratoga County | 108 |
| 26 | Ulster County | 101 |
| 27 | Steuben County | 100 |
| 28 | Orange County | 97 |
| 29 | Herkimer County | 93 |
| 30 | Nassau County | 87 |
| 31 | Kings County | 85 |
| 32 | Franklin County | 72 |
| 33 | Madison County | 47 |