Germany's public health authorities have recorded an estimated 5,120 heat-related deaths this year, most during a late June heat wave.
The latest figure already surpassed the annual average of about 2,900 heat-related deaths recorded between 2023 and 2025, according to a Robert Koch Institute (RKI) report released Thursday.
The RKI report on heat-related mortality is based, among other things, on monitoring death records from the Federal Statistical Office and data from the German Weather Service (DWD).
The institute estimated that heat-related deaths surged by 4,310 during the week of June 22-28, when Germany experienced its most intense heat. Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country during that period.
For the period from April through June 21, the RKI had estimated 810 heat-related deaths. However, an RKI spokeswoman said that virtually all of these deaths took place during the week of June 15-21.
Older people were by far the hardest hit. Around 4,270 of the deaths were among people aged 75 and older, the RKI said in a weekly report.
Around 2,950 of the estimated deaths by June 28 occurred among those aged 85 and older. The figure was about 1,320 among those aged 75 to 84, around 550 among those aged 65 to 74, and approximately 300 among people under 65.
More women than men died, mainly because they make up a higher share of the very old.
According to the German Weather Service, June 2026 was the country's second-warmest June since records began, after 2019.
The late-June heat wave brought temperatures above 41 C, while 46 weather stations recorded temperatures above 40 C on June 27.
The German data add to a grim picture across Europe. The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a bulletin Thursday that Western Europe had its hottest June on record with an average of 20.74 degrees.
National authorities have reported more than 4,700 excess deaths during the June 20-28 heatwave in France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
