Tuesday, July 14, 2026

More than 150,000 people have died from heat-related causes in Europe over the last decade

I know this sounds like a lot of people dying in 10 years from the heat and it is. However, the economic dynamics in Europe are much different than the U.S. as well. And traditionally people walk more but tend not to have air conditioners either because of the expense of the electricity and because they never got used to having air conditioning like People in the U.S. have over the years.
However, even here air conditioning really didn't get going in houses and apartments until at least the 1960s and 1970s and still people were dying a lot from the heat in summers all over the U.S. until the 1970s and 1980s. But, it's true that Air conditioners and electricity are much less expensive in the U.S. generally speaking because of hydroelectric dams across especially the western part of our country which can reduce the expense of electricity a lot in places like the Grand Coulee Dam and Hoover Dam and other hydroelectric dams over the years now.
 
You are a lot less likely to see these hydroelectric dams in Europe because the topography and traditions are different in Europe too than in the U.S.
 
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More than 150,000 people have died from heat-related causes in Europe over the last decade. This includes over 61,000 deaths during the severe summer heatwaves of 2022, nearly 48,000 in 2023, and thousands more during acute, record-breaking temperature spikes in the summers of 2024, 2025, and late June 2026.
Because heat stress exacerbates underlying cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, many of these fatalities are recorded as "excess deaths". Older adults and women are disproportionately affected, with the vast majority of victims aged 65 and older.
If you want to understand these figures better, let me know:
  • Which specific countries or years you would like more detailed data for
  • What preventive strategies you are looking to explore
I can help narrow down the information for your specific interests.
  • Heat claims more than 175,000 lives annually in Europe, latest data shows | UN News
    Aug 2, 2024 — According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 175,000 people die from heat-related causes each year in Europe. This account...
    UN News
  • Heat-related mortality in Europe during the summer of 2022 | Nature Medicine
    Jul 10, 2023 — The countries with the highest summer heat-related deaths were: * Italy (18,010) * Spain (11,324) * Germany (8,173) * France (4,80...
    Nature
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