MORE than 62,000 people died in the summer of 2024 due to a record-breaking heatwave, a study has revealed – with Spain recording the second highest death toll across Europe.
According to figures published in Nature Medicine by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, there were 62,775 heat-related deaths across Europe last year between June 1 and September 30 as sky-high temperatures baked the continent.
In fact, a recent report issued by the World Meteorological Organisation and the Copernicus Climate Change Services has revealed that 2024 was Europeโs warmest year on record – with the Mediterranean Sea found to be 1.2C above average.
Across Europe, the number of deaths caused by extreme heat were up 23.6% compared to the estimated figure of 50,800 for the summer of 2023.
But numbers were down 8.1% when compared with the savagely hot summer months of 2022, which claimed the lives of an estimated 67,900 people.
Spain recorded the second highest death toll with 6,743 deaths, with Italy taking the unfortunate prize of topping the heat-related deaths chart with over 19,000 lives lost.
Germany came third with 6,282 deaths, followed by Greece with 5,980.
Spainโs figure is lower than both 2022 and 2023, when the estimated heat-related death figure was 11,300 and 8,300 people respectively.
READ MORE: Record number of heat-related deaths in Spain during August
This is due to lower summer temperatures than the previous two years, even if 2024 was the hottest summer on record worldwide.
Dr Tomรกลก Janoลก, author of the study, said: โEurope is the continent that is warming most quickly, at twice the global average.
โAnd 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.โ
He added: โAlthough the summer of 2024 was the hottest on record according to Copernicus, in the specific regions of our study the summers of 2022 and 2023 were actually hotter.
โHowever, these regional differences in average temperature are not fully reflected in mortality, as the estimated deaths for 2024 were higher than those estimated for the summer of 2023 and only slightly lower than those for 2022.
โThis is because in 2022 and 2024, the highest temperatures occurred in south-western and south-eastern Europe, respectively, both areas that are highly vulnerable to heat.โ
The study also highlighted the disproportionate impact of heat on vulnerable populations, with older adults and women being particularly at risk.
The mortality rate among women was found to be 46.7% higher than that of men, while among people aged over 75, the mortality rate was a remarkable 323% higher than all other age groups.
Professor Joan Ballester Claramunt, study author and principal investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) EARLY-ADAPT project, said the magnitude of the figures highlights the need to โstrengthen adaptation strategies, including the development and implementation of a new generation of continent-wide, impact-based heat-health early warning systemsโ.
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