Overview

• The peer-reviewed ISGlobal analysis in Nature Medicine estimates roughly 181,000 heat-related deaths across the summers of 2022 to 2024.
• Italy saw the highest estimated toll in 2024 with more than 19,000 deaths, followed by Spain with over 6,700 and Germany with about 6,300.
• Per capita, the burden was greatest in Greece at 574 deaths per million residents, with Bulgaria at 530 and Serbia at 379.
• In 15 of 32 countries, summer 2024 was the deadliest of recent years, although Europe overall recorded slightly more heat deaths in 2022.
• Using daily mortality and temperature data from 654 regions in 32 countries, researchers corrected undercounts seen in weekly-data studies and tested the Forecaster.health model to issue regional alerts up to a week ahead as Europe warms faster than the global average and 2024 reached 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels.