Europe: Over 47,000 heat-related deaths in record heat year 2023

Last year was the warmest year on record worldwide. The heat claimed more than 47,000 victims in Europe alone, according to a new analysis.

An international team of researchers led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health used mortality data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) on more than 96 million deaths. On this basis, it estimated how many people would die from heat in 2023 in 823 regions in 35 European countries. study was published in the journal “Nature Medicine”.

Most deaths occurred in Greece

Result: There were 47,690 heat-related deaths in EuropeAccording to the researchers, this was the second highest mortality rate since such calculations began nine years ago. Only in 2022 were there more heat-related deaths.

Taking population size into account, the scientists found that southern Europe has the highest heat-related death rates: Greece with 393 deaths per million inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria (229), Italy (209) and Spain (175). In Germany, this rate was 76.

The analysis also showed that women and older people were particularly at risk.

Humanity adapts to the heat

However, the scientistthat apparently a Adaptation to the heat There is evidence “that we are less vulnerable to heat than at the beginning of the century, probably due to general socioeconomic progress, improvements in individual behaviour and public health measures such as the heat prevention plans implemented after the record summer of 2003,” it says in a statement.

Without these measures, heat-related mortality would likely have been 80 percent higher in 2023 and over 100 percent higher in the population aged 80 and over.

New early warning system

Just a few weeks ago, the same research team had developed a Online early warning system It provides forecasts of the risk of death associated with cold and heat by gender and Old.

The free tool provides forecasts up to 15 days in advance. (dpa/mks)