More than 50,000 people died in about 900 European cities as a result of the unprecedented heat in the summer of 2026. This was stated in a report by the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London.
“By our estimates, 50,391 excess heat-related deaths were recorded in 854 cities this summer,” the report said.
Excess mortality is a temporary rise in mortality compared with the initially expected rate, caused by external factors such as unprecedented weather events, armed conflicts or famine.
The highest heat mortality rates were recorded in Malta, Italy and Hungary. It was also noted that almost half of the deaths caused by the heat were among people over the age of 85. At the same time, 883 of the deaths recorded were among people aged 20-44.
The number of heat-related deaths in the summer of 2026 almost doubled the figures for the same period in 2025 and 2024.
