Socio-demographic characteristics and inequality in exposure to PM2.5: A case study in the Sichuan basin, China

The Chengyu Metropolitan Area (CYMA), located in the Sichuan Basin, is an unevenly developed region with high PM2.5 concentrations and a population of approximately 100 million. Although exposure inequality in air pollution has received increasing concern, no related research has been carried out in the CYMA to date. In this work, we used the concentration index to assess inequality of PM2.5 population-weighted exposure in the CYMA among different subgroups, including age, education, gender, occupation and GDP per capita in the city of residence. Our findings revealed that the non-disadvantaged subgroups (people aged 15–64, people with senior and higher education, people with high-income occupations and residents of cities with high GDP per capita) had a higher PM2.5 exposure in the CYMA, with the concentration indices of −0.03 (95% CI: 0.064, −0.001), −0.14 (95% CI: 0.221, −0.059), −0.15 (95% CI: 0.238, −0.056) and −0.27 (95% CI: 0.556, 0.012), opposite to previous studies in developed countries such as the United States and France. In addition, exposure differences among cities were much larger than those among populations in the CYMA. These findings may benefit the government in identifying disproportionately exposed subgroups in developing regions, and suggest that related measures should initially be carried out for cities exposed to high PM2.5 concentrations rather than for populations exposed to high PM2.5 concentrations. [Display omitted] •People aged 14–65 or with senior and higher education have higher exposure to PM2.5.•People with high-income occupations are exposed to higher PM2.5 concentrations.•The PM2.5 exposure differences among cities are larger than those among subgroups.