Annual heat-related deaths surge to 546 000 in the last decade due to climate change

The year 2024 was the hottest on record, with drastic consequences for the health, lives, and livelihoods of people across the globe, says the report. Worldwide, the average person was exposed to a record extra 16 health-threatening hot days owing directly to climate change, a 389 percent increase from the 1986-2005 yearly average. The most vulnerable (those aged under 1 year and over 65 years) experienced an all-time high of 20 heatwave days on average.

In parallel, a new indicator in this year’s report reveals that heat-related mortality per 100 000 increased by 23 percent since the 1990s, with total heat-related deaths reaching an average of 546,000 annually between 2012 and 2021.

More broadly, the report highlights climate change is increasingly destroying livelihoods, straining the economy, and burdening health budgets. Heat exposure resulted in a record 639 billion potential hours of lost labour productivity in 2024, with income losses equivalent to 1.09 trillion dollars (almost 1 percent of global GDP).

Hotter and dryer conditions have also fuelled conditions for wildfires, with fine particle pollution (PM 2.5) from wildfire smoke resulting in a record 154 000 deaths in 2024 (up 36 percent from the 2003-2012 yearly average), while droughts and heatwaves increased the number of people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity by 123 million in 2023, compared to the annual average between 1981 and 2010.

Climate action is delivering health and economic benefits

PIK scientists used a machine-learning-based approach to analyse peer reviewed scientific articles on health and climate change. Between 1990 and 2024, there has been a rapid expansion in the scientific literature, with a total of 56 996 articles published.  The vast majority of research is led by authors from very high or high Human Development Index (HDI) countries (73 percent of publications), and was focussed on them (88 percent of publications with location-attribution).

According to the report, climate action is already delivering associated health and economic benefits. An increased shift away from coal, particularly in wealthy countries, prevented an estimated 160 000 premature deaths yearly between 2010 and 2022, due to fine particulate (PM 2.5) air pollution from burning fossil fuels.