The indicator shows the number of people who were exposed to an annual average of more than 20 micrograms (μg) of fine dust PM10 (dust particles with a diameter of less than 10 μm) per m³ of air at their place of residence. Airborne particulate matter (PM10) is recorded at a total of more than 370 air monitoring stations in both metropolitan areas and rural backgrounds for the whole of Germany. For the calculation of this indicator, only those measuring stations are taken into account that do not directly emit particulate matter from traffic, as these regularly only represent the increased pollution at specific points and not over an area.

The German government has set itself the goal of achieving the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended guideline value for particulate matter of an annual average of 20 μg per m³ of air as comprehensively as possible in Germany by 2030. This is intended to reduce PM10 exposure to 0.

For indicators without a set baseline by the German Sustainability Strategy, 2030Watch uses the 2008 baseline of the EU2020 Strategy.

This is an official indicator of the German Sustainability Strategy.