Inequality causing 100,000 extra deaths a year from heat and cold in Europe

Economic inequality adds more than 100,000 deaths to the vast toll from heat and cold in Europe each year, research has found. Cutting the overall level of inequality to that of Europe’s most equal region, as measured by the Gini index, would reduce temperature-related mortality by as much as 30%, equating to 109,866 lives potentially saved, the study found. The findings come after the EU’s Copernicus monitoring project ranked last month as the third-hottest April on record globally, with some countries such as Spain recording their hottest April on record. The return of the natural heating phenomenon El Niño – which may shape up to be unusually strong – has raised fears of a brutal European summer in 2026. The researchers found high death tolls from heat and cold were associated with several indicators of hardship, such as poverty and the inability to heat a home. Cutting severe material and social deprivation across the continent to the level of central Switzerland, the least deprived region, would result in 59,000 fewer heat and cold deaths, according to the study. Increasing it to the level of southeast Romania, the most deprived region, would result in 101,000 more temperature-related deaths. The research is the first to quantify the effect of socio-economic troubles on the lives lost during Europe’s bone-chillingly cold winters and scorchingly hot summers. …