Overview

• Published in Nature Medicine, the study estimates 62,775 heat-related deaths from June 1 to September 30, 2024, up 23% on 2023 but below 2022.
• The toll across summers 2022–2024 exceeds 181,000, with roughly two-thirds in Southern Europe during what Copernicus identified as Europe’s warmest summer on record in 2024.
• Italy had the highest 2024 death count (about 19,000), followed by Spain (~6,700) and Germany (~6,300), while Greece recorded the highest rate at 574 deaths per million people.
• Women’s heat deaths in 2024 were 46.7% higher than men’s, and the mortality rate among people over 75 was 323% higher than in other age groups.
• ISGlobal reprocessed earlier years using daily rather than weekly mortality data and reported the Forecaster.health system as reliable at least a week ahead; a separate rapid analysis this month attributes about 16,500 additional 2025 city deaths to human-caused warming.