The air quality index (AQI) is an index for reporting daily or hourly air quality to the general public. The AQI focuses on health effects that can happen within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. Many countries have their own AQI reporting systems, and the HAEI (hourly air environment index) method is now being used in Korea. In this study, in order to compare the AQI results from different methods, we applied three methods. i.e. US AQI, Canadian AQI, and Korean HAEI, to the same air quality data-base. The data-base was constructed from 10 monitoring sites in Gyeong-buk province for the last four years since 2000. Based on the results, a critical evaluation of the Korean HAEI method was made, and a number of suggestions and recommendations were presented to improve the AQI reporting system in Korea.