New Delhi to top list

In another 10 years, Indian Capital Delhi will record the world's largest number of premature deaths due to air pollution among all mega cities in the world.

By 2025, nearly 32,000 people in Delhi will die solely due to inhaling polluted air.

However it will be another Indian city - Kolkata that will record the highest number of such deaths by 2050.

Kolkata will see its number of premature deaths spike between 2025 and 2050 and will record 54,800 deaths due to air pollution - more than Delhi which will record 52,000 deaths and Mumbai with 33100 deaths during the same year.

Annually, 3.3 million people worldwide die prematurely from the effects of air pollution.

This number will double by 2050 to 6.6 million if emissions continue to rise, according to a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.

In 2010, 75% of the premature mortality by air pollution occurred in Asia - with 1.4 million people/year in China and 650,000 people dying every year in India.

Pakistan recorded the third highest number of deaths due to air pollution in 2010 - 1.10 lakh followed by Bangladesh (91923), Nigeria (89022) and Russia (67152).

Interestingly, around 54905 people died in 2010 in US, majority of them due to inhaling polluted air released from coal burning in power stations.