Catalonia recorded 670 heat deaths in summer 2025, nearly triple last year's total

The number of deaths attributable to heat this summer in Catalonia rose to 670, nearly triple the 226 recorded during the same period last year, according to the daily mortality monitoring system (MoMo) at Spain's National Center for Epidemiology (CNE) at the Carlos III Health Institute.

In the period analyzed – from May 16 to September 30 – there were 55 deaths in June, 250 in July, 361 in August, and 4 in September.

Across Spain, heat-related deaths also rose sharply – up 88% to a total of 3,832.

Looking specifically at direct deaths from heatstroke, there were 25 recorded throughout Spain, including one 41-year-old man who died on July 5 in Catalonia, according to the CNE.

The summer 2025 heat death toll not only nearly triples that of last year, but also exceeds the number from the scorching summer of 2022, when 582 heat-attributed deaths were recorded.

In fact, this year marks the highest number since at least 2015, when MoMo observations began.

Of the people who died, 96% were over the age of 65, and half were over 85.

The final report of the national Heat Plan from Spain's Ministry of Health notes that this summer, there were 870 high-risk local heat episodes recorded across Spain, compared to 501 during the summer of 2024.

Climate change

In September, a separate study found that Barcelona recorded the third-highest number of heat deaths attributable to climate change in Europe this summer.

Researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that 786 deaths in the Catalan capital were due to extreme heat.

Throughout Catalonia, between June 1 and August 31, temperatures exceeded 35°C on two out of every three days, only the fourth time this has occurred this century.

Temperatures reached 40ºC on 16 days, equaling the record set in 2001.