Over 10,000 Excess Deaths in Europe During the June Heatwave

The record heatwave that struck western Europe at the end of June has been linked to more than 10,000 excess deaths across the continent, according to official data cited by Reuters. Of these deaths, over 9,000 were recorded among people aged 65 and over, according to statistics published by EuroMOMO, a network supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation.

Extreme heat can kill through heatstroke or by aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, with older people among the groups most at risk.

"It is unusual to see such excess mortality at this time of year. The figure is genuinely high," Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark — the institution that hosts EuroMOMO — told Reuters. He added: "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything other than the extreme heat."

According to scientists, the late-June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" in the absence of human-induced climate change, which is making heatwaves increasingly frequent and intense.

The data were collected from national mortality statistics across 27 European countries and include all excess deaths, regardless of cause — not only those directly related to heat — for the period 22–28 June, during which temperatures peaked in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Researchers stated that they had not identified any other major factors, such as a COVID-19 outbreak, that could explain the sharp rise in excess deaths, which reached 10,650 during that week.

By way of comparison, over the preceding eight weeks, combined mortality across the same European countries had averaged approximately 500 deaths per week below normal levels. EuroMOMO data may be revised subsequently as additional information becomes available.

The extreme heatwave caused disruptions to electricity supply, led to school closures, and broke temperature records in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

EuroMOMO does not publish figures broken down by individual country, but noted that France and Belgium were the only European states to report "very high" excess mortality during the final week of June. In Belgium, according to the national public health institute Sciensano, the highest excess mortality ever recorded during a heatwave was observed since measurements began in 2000.

A separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimates that 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during the heatwaves of May and June. According to findings from Imperial College London, the Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 42% of these deaths were attributable to the additional temperatures that global warming added to the heatwaves.