When Ageing Meets Extreme Heat

More than 9,000 of the 10,650 excess deaths recorded across Europe during the week of 22–28 June 2026 were among people aged 65 and over.

That striking figure, cited in a recent analysis by S&P Global Ratings, illustrates a growing challenge for Europe: climate change and population ageing are no longer separate issues. They are increasingly reinforcing one another.

“As Europe grows older, resilience has to mean more than responding to climate change in general. We need to think specifically about how our homes, communities and care systems protect older people from conditions they were never designed to face," says Francesco Sparraco, Chairman of Threestones Foundation.

Europe is warming at around twice the global average rate, according to the World Health Organization. At the same time, its population is ageing rapidly. According to Eurostat, people aged 65 and over accounted for 21.6% of the EU population in 2024 and 22% in 2025.

These two trends create a particular vulnerability.

Older people are physiologically less able to cope with extreme temperatures. Age can reduce the body's capacity to sweat, regulate temperature and respond to dehydration. Cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, diabetes and some commonly prescribed medications can increase the risk further, as outlined by the WHO in its work on climate change and healthy ageing.

New research suggests that the danger may have been underestimated. A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in August found that previous climate projections frequently used heat-tolerance limits based on healthy younger adults.

When researchers incorporated age-specific physiological limits, the projected exposure of older populations to dangerous heat rose significantly. The study is available through The Lancet Planetary Health.

The implications extend well beyond hospitals.

Extreme heat affects how elderly people live at home, how residential and long-term-care facilities are designed, how cities provide shade and cooling, and how social-care networks identify people living alone.

It is also acquiring a financial dimension. S&P Global Ratings warns that increasingly frequent heatwaves could create higher healthcare utilisation and mortality claims for health, life and long-term-care insurers.

The risk could become more significant as both temperatures and the proportion of older Europeans increase.

WHO Europe now describes extreme heat as a recurring public-health crisis. It estimates that heat has claimed more than 200,000 lives across Europe in the past four years, while heat-related mortality has risen by around 30% over two decades.

Importantly, much of that mortality is preventable.

Heat-action plans, cooler buildings, accessible green spaces, early-warning systems, better-designed care facilities and stronger community support can all reduce risk.

The WHO’s guidance on heat-health action planning specifically calls for coordinated preparation and prevention rather than simply responding once an extreme-heat emergency is underway.

Europe therefore faces a question that is becoming harder to ignore:

Are the places in which we expect people to grow old being designed for the climate in which they will actually grow old?