Heat mortality surges in Europe – Statista

Heat-related mortality in Europe has surged over the last couple of decades. This is according to the latest available data published by the Lancet Countdown 2025 Report, Statista reports.

Between 2012 and 2021, 5.5 people per 100,000 population died of heat-related causes per year on the continent. This is almost double the annual rate observed between 1992 and 2021.

Similarly rapid surges were observed over the same time period in Asia-Pacific as well as in the Americas. However, heat deaths stayed on a lower level in these regions and reached only an annual 3.4 and 2.1 in 100,000, respectively, during the last decade.

All three continents in question have an aging population, making heatwaves more deadly as it is older people who predominantly succumb to heat-related causes. But Europe is also less prepared than other continents for a changing climate as its many temperate regions have not built for the heat and have traditionally neither been equipped for it, may that be in terms of air conditioner ownership or knowledge of ways to stay cool.

Hotter (and younger) regions of the globe have not seen the same developments in heat-related mortality, even though they do experience consistently higher levels of it. In Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East as well as South and Southeast Asia, brutal heatwaves claim the lives between nine and 14 people per 100,000 every year. In all three regions, this figure has changes by at most 10% since the 1990s.

While heat waves and spikes have always happened, climate change has made these longer, more severe and more frequent.

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According to World Weather Attribution, an initiative studying the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, the temperatures observed over the past 10 days would have been extreme at any time of the year, but for June they are even more unusual. As our chart shows, the three hottest days in numerous European capitals were so extraordinary for June, that the estimated return period of a similar heat wave exceeds 100 years. The same was true for nighttime temperatures, which made this heat wave so dangerous. “Nighttime is when the body is supposed to recover. When we sleep, our core temperature drops, our cardiovascular system rests, and the cumulative stress of a hot day begins to ease. When nights stay warm, that recovery does not happen. The body remains under strain around the clock,” Armel Castellan, Extreme Heat Services Technical Advisor of the WHO-WMO Climate and Health Joint Office explained.

According to WHO Director-General Tedros A. Ghebreyesus, more than 1,300 excess deaths linked to extreme heat have been recorded in Europe since June 21 – a grim reminder of the lack of preparedness for extreme heat in large parts of Europe. “Heatwaves like this are what we expect to see in a changing climate,” John Kennedy, head of climate information at WMO, said in a statement. “In the 50 years since the historic heatwave in 1976, Europe as a whole has warmed by around two degrees. It’s the fastest warming continents and extremes of temperature have increased too,” he said. To address the growing threat posed by extreme heat, Dr. Tedros encouraged policymakers across Europe to implement heat health action plans to protect health against the future effects of climate change.

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