Europe heatwaves: More than 32,000 excess deaths recorded in 2026 so far

According to EuroMomo’s latest weekly estimates, the last week of June appears to have been the summer’s deadliest, with nearly 16,000 excess deaths recorded.

The first week of July follows in second place with about 8000 deaths.

Both weeks coincided with one of the recurring exceptional heatwaves in which Europeans baked this summer, while widespread droughts provided ideal tinder-dry conditions for raging wildfires.

As EuroMomo’s most recent estimates will be refined over the next weeks, the death toll is set to evolve.

The monitor’s model only includes official statistics from 23 European countries and excludes part of the continent’s east.

Unwanted German record

Germany, the European Union’s most populous country with 82 million people, had 14,000 deaths linked to the heatwaves until August 9, according to official figures.

A vessel sails past the partially dried-up river bed of the Rhine in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on August 20, 2026, following exceptionally hot weather. Photo / AFP

That tally is a record since such records began in 2016, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

Like in other European countries, people over the age of 75 suffered the most, the institute said.

7300 dead in France

France has already logged 7300 excess deaths across the sweltering period between late May and July 22, according to the provisional toll from the public health authorities.

The summer’s tally is all but certain to rise, as the long heatwave, which began in late July, has just come to an end.

Almost 4500 in Spain

Nearly 4500 deaths blamed on the heat were recorded in Spain between June 1 and August 19 – the highest for that time of year since 2022, according to the Carlos III Health Institute.

July was mainland Spain’s joint-hottest month since records began in 1961, tied with July 2022, according to the AEMET national weather agency.

English record threatened

The UK health and safety authority estimates that England had 2877 heat-related deaths across May and June’s heatwaves, threatening to topple the historic tally of 2985 from the summer of 2022.

People people lay on the scorched grass in Victoria Tower Gardens, near the Houses of Parliament, in central London on August 21, 2026. Photo / AFP

It warned that the toll for 2026 as a whole could be substantially higher as a result of other periods of high heat.

2570 in Belgium

Belgium’s provisional tally is even more deadly relative to its small population.

According to the Sciensano national public health institute’s estimates, the country had 2570 excess deaths between June 18 and July 17.

The toll is set to be updated in September to take into account the period from July 25 to August 16, which was the beginning of the country’s worst wildfire in modern history, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Nearly 1000 Dutch dead

AFP’s analysis of figures from the Netherlands’ RIVM institute for public health and the environment puts the number of excess deaths in the country between June 22 and July 5 at 968.

A man cools his head at water hoses spilling water to provide relief from the summer heat as part of Cologne’s climate adaptation measures in Cologne, western Germany on June 25, 2026 during a heatwave in Europe. Photo / AFP

Hundreds dead in Austria, Portugal

Austria’s AGES agency for health and food security lists June’s tally of heatwave-related deaths as 396. According to the public data, available from 2017, that level is previously unmatched for the month in the alpine nation.

Portugal had more than 600 excess deaths between mid-June and the end of July, according to figures from the DGS health authority analysed by AFP.

– AFP