Alex Trelinski
A RECORD number of 2,177 people in Spain died from heat-related causes in August.
That’s a 71.3% increase on the same month in 2024 according to the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) from the Carlos III Health Institute.
The August total was 1,117 higher than in July and since the beginning of June, Spain has reported 3,644 heat deaths, 84.3% more than the summer months last year.
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The highest fatalities last month were in the second and third weeks, with 934 and 862 deaths respectively.
Women accounted for 1,300 deaths in August and the majority of deceased were aged over 65 years(2,099) and of those, 1,428 were over 85 years old.
The reason why women figure so highly is simply that they live longer than men.
Juan Torres Macho, coordinator of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), said: “There are more older women alive than men. While men’s life expectancy is 80 years, theirs reaches 84.”
Below the age of 75, the percentage of heat deaths fall in both sexes, being practically close to zero in childhood and youth ages.
The most affected regions last month were Madrid, with 415 deaths followed by Catalunya with 361.
That’s followed by Castilla y Leon (264), the Valencian Community (204), Galicia (198), and Andalucia(169).
This year is on track to have the most heat-related deaths due to heatwaves hitting the country much earlier than normal.
The current record high was in 2022, when 4,690 fatalities were recorded.
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