The Mediterranean basin and south-eastern regions are emerging as major climate change hotspots, facing the greatest impacts on health.
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Europe’s record-breaking heat last year has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths, after extreme temperatures reached “highly vulnerable” parts of the continent.
New research estimates a staggering 62,775 heat-related deaths occurred in Europe between 1 June and 30 September, 2024 - a 23.6 per cent spike compared to the previous summer. The summer of 2024 was Europe’s hottest on record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service.
The study, led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), focused on 654 regions in 32 countries and linked more than 181,000 deaths to heat-related causes from 2022 to 2024.
However, Chris Hocknell, Director at Eight Versa, a sustainability consultancy in London, says it’s possible these statistics have been significantly downplayed.
“Many heat-related deaths don't get reported,” he tells Euronews Green. “It’s similar in some ways to Covid: heat often compounds existing health conditions, which is why older people are particularly vulnerable.
“It is not always clear whether heat stress was the direct cause of death or a contributing factor, but the statistical signal is clear; mortality spikes during extreme heat events.”
Heat-related deaths hit Italy the hardest
Published in Nature Medicine, the study found that the country with the highest number of heat deaths was Italy, where more than 19,000 people died during the four-month period.
It is believed that the country’s soaring temperatures, which reached a sweltering 40°C in cities such as Rome and Palermo, as well as its large elderly population, both contributed to the high death toll.
In fact, in people aged over 75, the estimated mortality rate was 323 per cent higher than in all other age groups. The number of heat-related deaths among women was also 46.7 per cent higher compared to men.
Which European countries saw the most heat-related deaths in 2024?
Spain saw the second-highest total number of heat-related deaths in 2024 at 6,743. It is followed by Germany with 6,282, Greece with 5,980 and Romania with 4,943.
Bulgaria (3,414), Serbia (2,515), France (2,451), Poland (1,780) and Hungary (1,443) also made the list of the 10 hardest hit countries.
In terms of mortality incidence - which refers to the number of deaths relative to a country’s population - Greece witnessed the highest heat-related death rates at 574 deaths per million.
This was followed by Bulgaria (530 deaths per million) and Serbia (379 deaths per million).
Researchers highlight that these rates are “significantly higher” than those estimated for the 2022 and 2023 summer periods. For example, Greece recorded 373 deaths per million in 2023.
Europe is warming ‘at twice the global average’
“Europe is the continent that is warming most quickly, at twice the global average,” says Tomáš Janoš, ISGlobal and Recetox researcher and first author of the study.
“Within Europe, the Mediterranean basin and south-eastern regions are emerging as major climate change hotspots, facing the greatest impacts on health and with a substantial rise in heat-related mortality projected during the 21st century.”
ISGlobal’s findings come after another scorching summer across Europe, which resulted in a slew of dangerous wildfires, the temporary closure of tourist attractions and extreme heat deaths making the headlines.
Montse Aguilar, a 51-year-old street cleaner, died in Barcelona on 28 June after enduring a seven-hour shift outside while the city was under alert for high temperatures.
Brahim Ait El Hajjam, a 47-year-old construction worker in San Lazzaro di Savena, Italy, also died after collapsing on the floor of a car park.
Is climate change causing heat-related deaths?
Climate change has intensified temperatures across Europe - particularly this summer - with leading scientists arguing it has caused an additional 16,500 deaths in 2025 alone.
A rapid analysis by researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates that climate change was responsible for 68 per cent of the 24,400 estimated heat deaths this summer, increasing temperatures by up to 3.6°C.
During a single heatwave from 21 to 27 July, around 950 heat deaths occurred in temperatures up to 6°C above average across Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Cyprus. This works out to 11 daily deaths per million people.
“Heatwaves are silent killers,” warns Dr Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, lecturer at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment. “Despite being the deadliest type of extreme weather, heat has long been underestimated as a public health risk.”
To prevent summer death tolls from skyrocketing, Hocknell argues countries - particularly those in southern Europe - need to prepare by having “better infrastructure” such as homes that keep heat out and can cope with overheating.
“One problem, which is especially acute in London and other European cities, is that sustainability regulation has effectively outlawed cooling,” he adds.
“Only about 20 per cent of European households have access to air conditioning, compared with nearly 90 per cent in the US.”
