More than 10,000 people died across Europe during the record-breaking heatwave that swept through the western part of the continent in June, with the overwhelming majority of the victims being elderly people, according to new mortality data.
Figures released by EuroMOMO, a mortality monitoring network supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), showed that 10,650 excess deaths were recorded across 27 European countries during the week of June 22 to 28, when temperatures peaked in France, Spain, the United Kingdom and several other nations.
Of the total, more than 9,000 deaths occurred among people aged 65 years and above, underscoring the devastating impact of extreme heat on older populations.
EuroMOMO said the excess mortality was far above seasonal expectations, noting that the combined mortality across the same countries had, in the preceding eight weeks, averaged about 500 fewer deaths per week than normal.
Chief Physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, Lasse Vestergaard, described the mortality surge as highly unusual.
“To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high,” Vestergaard said, adding that it was difficult to attribute the spike in deaths to anything other than the extreme heat.
Health experts explained that extreme heat can prove fatal by triggering heat stroke or worsening cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable.
Scientists also linked the unprecedented heatwave to human-induced climate change, saying such an event would have been “virtually impossible” without global warming, which has made heatwaves more frequent, longer-lasting and more intense.
The data covered deaths from all causes rather than only those directly linked to heat. However, researchers said there were no major concurrent events, such as COVID-19 outbreaks, that could explain the sharp increase in mortality.
The late-June heatwave crippled parts of Europe, disrupting electricity supplies, forcing school closures and shattering temperature records in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Although EuroMOMO does not publish country-specific mortality figures, it reported that France and Belgium recorded “very high excess” mortality during the final week of June. Belgium’s public health institute, Sciensano, said the country’s excess mortality was the highest recorded during any heatwave since records began in 2000.
In a separate study published on Monday, researchers from Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that about 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales during the May and June heatwaves.
The study further found that 42 per cent of those deaths were attributable to the additional heat generated by human-caused climate change, reinforcing growing concerns over the escalating human cost of global warming across Europe.
