This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: More than 50,000 heat-related deaths are estimated to have occurred in urban areas across Europe during summer 2026, with around two-thirds attributed to human-induced climate change, according to new research led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College London. The study analyzed temperatures and estimated heat-related mortality in 854 urban areas across 27 European Union countries, the U.K., Norway and Switzerland.
Together, these areas account for approximately 40% of the population of the 30 countries included. The researchers found that summer 2026 had the highest heat-related death toll since 2000—almost double that of the summer of 2022, when around 29,000 deaths were attributed to heat, and 2003, when the toll was approximately 28,000. Nearly one-third of the deaths estimated for summer 2026 occurred between June 17 and July 1, when average daily temperatures across the region were more than 5°C above the 1991–2020 average.
Southern and western Europe experienced the highest temperatures and estimated mortality rates. Western Europe experienced the largest temperature anomaly, with average temperatures approximately 2.9°C above the 1991–2020 average. On some days, temperatures were as much as 12°C above the seasonal average.
However, heat also had a substantial impact on parts of northern Europe that have historically experienced cooler summers. In the U.K., researchers estimated approximately 4,500 heat-related deaths across the 135 urban areas included in the analysis. Older adults were the most affected, but the researchers estimated that around 6,000 of the total deaths within the study occurred among people younger than 65.
Pierre Masselot, assistant professor, statistician and epidemiologist at LSHTM and co-author of both studies, said, "This summer has been another dramatic reminder that climate change is everybody's problem. It is not just hot regions that are suffering anymore—some parts of western and northern Europe are now experiencing extreme heat and a historically high health burden. This is affecting the whole population, as shown by the significant death toll among younger age groups.
"It is becoming increasingly clear our cities are poorly adapted to rising heat, and it is critical we improve our efforts toward adaptation. This means cooling the cities through creating more green spaces, reducing pollution and providing health care for affected populations." The 2026 study was published alongside related research in Nature Health from the same team at Imperial and LSHTM, examining heat-related mortality in the same 854 European urban areas over the summers of 2000 to 2025. The researchers estimated that over 430,000 deaths were caused by heat during that period, and that the proportion of heat-related deaths attributable to human-induced climate change rose from around 40% in 2000 to more than two-thirds in 2025.
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