MADRID, Sept 23 — The summer heat of 2024 caused more than 62,700 heat-related deaths in Europe, an increase of nearly 25 per cent over 2023, according to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) published on Monday in Nature Medicine, reported the German News Agency (dpa).
"There were more than 181,000 heat-related deaths in Europe" in the summers from 2022 to 2024," said the study's lead author Joan Ballester Claramunt.
Just as in 2002 and 2023, Italy was by far the most affected country last year, with an estimated 19,000 heat-related deaths between June 1 and September 30. Spain ranked second with more than 6,700 deaths, followed by Germany, which recorded around 6,300 fatalities. Greece, with just under 6,000 deaths, and Romania, with more than 4,900, ranked fourth and fifth.
The rankings change when the estimated number of heat-related deaths is considered relative to population size. According to the study, Greece ranked first with 574 heat deaths per 1 million inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria with 530, and Serbia with 379. In 15 of the 32 countries examined, the summer of 2024 was the deadliest in recent years.
In some countries like Germany, Spain and France, the summer of 2022 was worse. Overall, researchers noted that Europe experienced slightly more heat-related deaths in 2022 than in 2024.
Factors such as the regional distribution of heat play a role in these variations. Older people are particularly at risk.
