Sultry heat in the EU, record deaths in Italy in 2023: the study on the ‘disaster’

Last year The scorching heat has caused the death of over 47 thousand people in Europe (47,690). 2023 was the hottest year on record and the second hottest in Europe. This was established by a study coordinated by the Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona published in ‘Nature Medicine’.

Heat-related deaths, record number of victims in Italy in 2023

Of the total deaths, approximately 1 in 4 (12,743) were certified in Italy which is the country with the highest numbers; then there is Spain (8,352) and Germany (6,376). The highest mortality rate is in Greece with 393 deaths per million, followed by Bulgaria (229) and Italy with 209 deaths per million.

“Disaster on a large scale”

“This is a large-scale disaster, but the death toll related to the heat is still lower than that of the 2022 – the researchers observe – when more than 61,000 people died in Europeaccording to the same analysis by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)”.

The researchers also found that in 2023, “heat-related mortality would have been 80% higher without measures to help people adapt over the past two decades.”