Germany Records 15,800 Heat-Related Deaths in Record-Breaking Summer
Germany’s public health institute says nearly 9,600 people died during a single week of extreme heat in late June, as severe heatwaves swept across Europe
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Germany recorded an estimated 15,800 heat-related deaths this summer, the highest figure in a decade of monitoring, as successive heatwaves pushed temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius and intensified drought and wildfires across Europe, the country’s national public health institute said Thursday.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said people aged over 75 were the worst affected group, with approximately 9,600 heat-related deaths recorded during one week in late June when temperatures soared above 40C across parts of Germany.
A further 4,000 heat-related deaths were recorded between late July and mid-August, according to the institute’s latest assessment.
The figures come as much of Europe has endured an exceptionally hot and dry summer, with extreme temperatures contributing to increased mortality while also fueling wildfires, damaging agricultural production and reducing water levels in major rivers.
The RKI said it has monitored heat-related mortality for the past decade. The previous record was approximately 8,900 heat-related deaths in 2018, while a separate report published by a medical journal estimated that about 10,000 people died from heat-related causes in Germany in 1994.
Older people particularly vulnerable
Extreme heat can cause death directly through conditions such as heatstroke, but the majority of heat-related fatalities occur when high temperatures aggravate existing medical conditions, particularly cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases.
Older people are particularly vulnerable because they are more likely to have underlying health conditions and can have a reduced ability to regulate body temperature.
The RKI calculates heat-related mortality using statistical models that compare the number of deaths recorded during summer weeks affected by heatwaves with mortality during weeks without significant heat events.
The latest figures underscore the growing health impact of extreme temperatures as Europe experiences increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves, which scientists have linked to a warming climate.
A stark comparison
The scale of Germany’s latest heat mortality estimate becomes clearer when compared with the COVID-19 pandemic: around 9,600 heat-related deaths were recorded in a single week during the late-June heatwave, compared with approximately 6,045 reported COVID-19 deaths during Germany’s worst week of the pandemic.
The estimated weekly heat toll was therefore roughly 59 percent higher than the country’s peak weekly COVID-19 death count. While the two figures are not directly equivalent — COVID-19 deaths were reported cases, whereas heat mortality is estimated statistically — the comparison nevertheless illustrates the potentially severe public-health impact of extreme temperatures.