How Many Global Deaths Are Attributed to Air Pollution?

According to The Nobel Laureates Guide to the Smartest Targets for the World 2016-2030,

Air quality has improved dramatically in rich countries over the past century. Around 1880, when the air was worst in London, it is estimated that 9,000 people died each year from air pollution,1 about one of every seven deaths.2 Today, London air is cleaner than since medieval times.

Yet, air pollution is still a huge problem, especially in the developing world. It kills 7 million people each year, or one of every eight deaths globally. This is not, however, the air pollution that most think about. The most deadly air pollution comes from inside people’s houses, because 2.8 billion people still use firewood, dung and coal for cooking and keeping warm, breathing polluted air inside their homes every day.

To people, who don’t live under these conditions, it is hard to imagine how dirty the indoor air is. The World Health Organization points out that the outdoor air in, for instance, Beijing, Delhi and Karachi is several times more polluted that the outdoor air in Berlin, London and Paris.3 But the typical indoor air in a developing country dwelling with an open fire is many times more polluted than Beijing, Delhi or Karachi. That is why indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people each year, making it one of the world’s leading causes of death. (Kindle Locations 641-653)

That comes out to, "one of every thirteen people that die on the planet" (Kindle Locations 1433-1434). In China, 23 percent of deaths are due to air pollution.