Home › Air Quality › Metro areas › Gainesville, GA

Gainesville, GA Air Quality

EPA monitor data through 2025 · Updated September 02, 2026 · Methods

In 2025, Gainesville, GA recorded 0 days above an Air Quality Index of 100, the level at which EPA begins warning sensitive groups, out of 364 days with monitoring data. The rest of the year was 210 Good days and 154 Moderate days. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 0 days. Since 2008, unhealthy days are 100% lower on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025

AQI above 100

Same air, pre-2013 rules

for comparison with older reports

Good-air days

210

AQI 50 or below

Days monitored

364

full year

Unhealthy days by year, scored two ways

EPA changed what an AQI of 100 means in 2013 and again in 2015, so a count published before those changes is not comparable to one published after. Each panel below applies a single fixed rulebook to every year, so each is internally consistent. Why this matters.

Scored by today's rules

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Faded columns mark years with fewer than 300 monitored days, where the count is not comparable.

What 2025 looked like

Air quality category	Days	Share of days with an AQI
Good	210	58%
Moderate	154	42%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups	0	0%
Unhealthy or worse	0	0%

Median AQI 46 · 90th-percentile AQI 62 · worst day 82. Scored under current rules, out of 364 days with an AQI.

Statewide context

Gainesville, GA sits in Georgia.

Days in each air quality category, by year

How many days fell in each AQI category, for every year with an AQI on record. Categories are scored under EPA's current breakpoints. A year with fewer than 300 days is marked, because a short year lowers every count for reasons that have nothing to do with the air.

Year	Good	Moderate	Unhealthy for sensitive groups	Unhealthy or worse	Days with an AQI
2000 (partial)	10	87	5	0	102
2001 (partial)	26	85	2	0	113
2002 (partial)	29	79	0	0	108
2003 (partial)	20	88	1	0	109
2004 (partial)	30	86	0	0	116
2005 (partial)	25	85	2	0	112
2006 (partial)	30	80	0	0	110
2007 (partial)	30	77	1	0	108
2008	72	273	2	0	347
2009	105	221	0	0	326
2010	94	260	0	0	354
2011	94	257	0	0	351
2012	121	207	0	0	328
2013	145	197	0	0	342
2014	114	204	0	0	318
2015 (partial)	81	183	0	0	264
2016 (partial)	78	39	1	1	119
2017 (partial)	144	110	0	0	254
2018	220	102	0	0	322
2019	181	159	0	0	340
2020	221	139	0	0	360
2021	209	156	0	0	365
2022	217	147	0	0	364
2023	166	194	3	0	363
2024	176	190	0	0	366
2025	210	154	0	0	364

Good is AQI 0–50, Moderate 51–100, Unhealthy for sensitive groups 101–150. “Unhealthy or worse” combines the Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy and Hazardous categories, which are shown together because most areas record too few of each to report separately. The four columns sum to the last one by construction. These counts exclude sulphur dioxide, following EPA, which drops SO₂ from county and metro summaries because it is too localized to describe a whole area.

The full series

The same years scored two ways, with the pollutant that drove the days above 100. EPA's files record which pollutant set each day's AQI; they do not attribute days to wildfire smoke, so no column here claims to.

Year	Unhealthy days, current rules	Of which fine particles	Pre-2013 rules	Days monitored
2000	5	5	1	102
2001	2	2	0	113
2002	0	0	0	108
2003	1	1	1	109
2004	0	0	0	116
2005	2	2	0	112
2006	0	0	0	110
2007	1	1	1	108
2008	2	2	1	347
2009	0	0	0	326
2010	0	0	0	354
2011	0	0	0	351
2012	0	0	0	328
2013	0	0	0	342
2014	0	0	0	318
2015	0	0	0	264
2016	2	2	2	119
2017	0	0	0	254
2018	0	0	0	322
2019	0	0	0	340
2020	0	0	0	360
2021	0	0	0	365
2022	0	0	0	364
2023	3	3	3	363
2024	0	0	0	366
2025	0	0	0	364

Sources

EPA AirData daily monitor files, recomputed under both breakpoint tables. Methods and validation.
Download the full dataset for every state and metro.