Germany reports 2,800 heat related deaths in 2024

It is estimated that there were around 2800 heat-related deaths in Germany last year. That was almost as many as in 2023, when around 3100 people died as a result of the heat, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported on Thursday. During the summer months, high outdoor temperatures regularly lead to significantly increased mortality rates. The summers of 2023 and 2024 in Germany averaged 18.6°C and 18.5°C, respectively, and thus, 2.3°Cand 2.2°C above the internationally valid reference period from 1961 to 1990 (16.3° C for Germany).

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According to the authority, this puts the past two years roughly in line with the average number of 3300 heat-related deaths in the years 2013 to 2022. This is mainly due to the fact that there were fewer days with high average temperatures than in 2018, 2020 and 2022, for example.
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Heat-related deaths occur mainly in people over 75 years of age and often affect people with mental disorders such as dementia and with cardiovascular or lung diseases. The highest numbers of heat-related deaths were recorded in 1994 and 2003. At that time, there were an estimated ten thousand heat-related deaths each year.

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After 2007, high temperatures had less of an impact on mortality than in previous years, but mortality remained at a similar level. According to the RKI, there has been a concentration of summers with a medium and high number of heat-related deaths since 2013.
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The health effects of heat have increasingly become the focus of research and public attention in recent years. In older age groups in particular, there is a systematic link between high outdoor temperatures and increased mortality rates. The reasons for this range from deaths due to heatstroke to more complex constellations, such as in people with pre-existing cardiovascular, lung or dementia diseases. In these cases, the underlying disease is usually recorded in the cause of death statistics. The total number of heat-related deaths is therefore estimated using statistical methods.