Best Places to Live with Asthma: Clean Air and Lung Doctors Nearby
Editorial Staff · September 19, 2026
A summary of facts and distances, *not medical advice.
Make this a wish: Where Might I Live highlights US counties where you might find it, in search of YOUR happy place. Combine wishes for healthcare, prices, and more.
Clean air and a lung doctor nearby. A walk that does not have to be timed around the air. A specialist in your own county rather than three counties over. An appointment you can keep without planning the whole day around it.
In 10 counties across 6 states the air is among the cleanest in the country and a lung or allergy doctor works in the county.3
| Wishes | Matching counties | Across the country in general |
|---|---|---|
| Lung and allergy doctors nearby | 2663 | 2,099 of 3,143 counties have none |
| The cleanest air | 2223 | the typical county measures about 7.6, against 1.3 in the cleanest2 |
We measure the pulmonologists and allergists working in the county against the people living there, and we take the air from the yearly average of fine particles in it, in micrograms in a cubic meter of it. A year of air is not a week of it: the figure is an average over a whole county and a whole year, and a season of smoke or a road at the end of the street still sits inside it.
What stands out
- 2,099 of 3,143 US counties have no pulmonologist and no allergist at all, which is two counties in every three.1
- The cleanest air and the most lung doctors rarely meet: 222 counties have the cleanest air, 266 have the most doctors, and 10 have both.3
- In most states, the typical county has neither kind of doctor.1
Best places to live with asthma
Two towns an hour apart, same state, same tax code. In one, the specialist is in the same county and a parent books an appointment for a Tuesday morning and is back for lunch. In the other, the nearest one is a hundred miles away and takes a whole day to get to.
10 counties across 6 states have both the cleanest air in the country and a lung or allergy doctor working in the county.3
Best places to live with COPD
An older person living with COPD is asking the same two questions, and coming back more often. A pulmonologist in the county turns a regular review into a morning rather than a day.
Pulmonologists and allergists are measured together, so a county with one kind and not the other still reaches the top group: 266 counties do.3
Counties with the cleanest air
The typical US county measures about 7.6 for fine particles in the air, and the cleanest measure 1.3. 222 counties are in the cleanest group, and a person moving for the air alone can choose from all of them.2
Counties with the cleanest air and a lung doctor nearby
10 counties have both, in 6 different states. Each one is in the top group in the country for lung and allergy doctors and in the cleanest group for air.3
- Grafton County, NH
4.4 for fine particles, and 25.0 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- New Hanover County, NC
4.1 for fine particles, and 8.9 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Los Alamos County, NM
4.9 for fine particles, and 10.3 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Penobscot County, ME
4.6 for fine particles, and 8.4 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Buncombe County, NC
5.1 for fine particles, and 10.9 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Norfolk County, MA
5.3 for fine particles, and 12.7 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Colfax County, NM
4.9 for fine particles, and 8.1 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Androscoggin County, ME
5.1 for fine particles, and 8.8 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Natrona County, WY
4.9 for fine particles, and 7.5 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
- Nantucket, MA
5.3 for fine particles, and 6.9 lung and allergy doctors for every 100,000 people3
A doctor nearby is easier to find: 266 counties across the country are in the top group for pulmonologists and allergists.3
Plenty more places have a lung doctor in the county. Start there and narrow as you go.
Sources and review
- HRSA Area Health Resources Files, AHRF 2024-2025. Fact sheet (PDF).
- County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, 2025 annual data release. Fact sheet (PDF).
- Where Might I Live county figures: doctors in the county measured against the people living there, and the county’s air. Methodology
- Written
- 2026-09-19
- Reviewed by
- Editorial Staff, 2026-09-27
- Published
- 2026-10-04