# Counties in Tennessee by highest daily Air Quality Index (US EPA), 2003

All 30 values come from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 2003, so the places are comparable. 12 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/tennessee-counties

| Rank | Place | index |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Hamilton County | 195 |
| 2 | Jefferson County | 187 |
| 2 | Knox County | 187 |
| 4 | Sevier County | 182 |
| 4 | Sullivan County | 182 |
| 6 | Blount County | 177 |
| 6 | Putnam County | 177 |
| 8 | Sumner County | 174 |
| 9 | Shelby County | 172 |
| 10 | Anderson County | 169 |
| 11 | Haywood County | 166 |
| 12 | DeKalb County | 159 |
| 12 | Lawrence County | 159 |
| 12 | Wilson County | 159 |
| 15 | Williamson County | 156 |
| 16 | Obion County | 154 |
| 16 | Rutherford County | 154 |
| 18 | Davidson County | 150 |
| 18 | Humphreys County | 150 |
| 20 | Meigs County | 147 |
| 21 | Claiborne County | 126 |
| 22 | McMinn County | 119 |
| 23 | Montgomery County | 108 |
| 24 | Dyer County | 106 |
| 25 | Union County | 104 |
| 26 | Loudon County | 98 |
| 27 | Maury County | 94 |
| 28 | Roane County | 92 |
| 29 | Madison County | 78 |
| 30 | Bradley County | 50 |