An estimated 14,000 people in Germany have died of heat-related causes this summer. People aged 75 and over were the most frequently affected group, according to the weekly report published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin on Thursday. The nationwide figures cover estimated heat-related deaths up to 9 August.
Of the 14,000 deaths, 9,600 occurred during the exceptionally hot 26th calendar week of the year, between 22 and 28 June, according to the RKI. Record temperatures of more than 41 degrees Celsius were measured in some locations during that period. No other year in the past decade has seen as many heat-related deaths as 2026. The previous peak was recorded in 2018, with an estimated 8,900 heat-related deaths.
The scale of heat-related mortality is modelled using statistical methods that compare the number of deaths in summer weeks with heat against those in summer weeks without it. This approach is necessary because heat cannot be listed as a cause of death on death certificates and therefore does not appear in official cause-of-death statistics.
Heat leads directly to death only in rare cases, for example through heatstroke. In most cases, death results from a combination of high temperatures and existing underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease, lung disease or kidney disease. For this reason, the term used is heat-related deaths.
Periods of heat regularly cause mortality in Germany to rise. The RKI publishes a weekly report on the current situation between June and September. In parallel, the Federal Statistical Office also publishes data on heat-related mortality. According to the RKI, the delay before the figures appear in the statistics is due to mortality data from the federal states, which is only reported after a five-week lag.
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