Almost 8,000 excess deaths in France's scorched summer: statistics

The hottest summer in France since 1900 marked by a succession of record heatwaves resulted in almost 8,000 excess deaths, health authorities statistics published on Wednesday showed.

The latest figure of 7,919 excess deaths from late May to August 20 is not final and could yet rise as the data from the final weeks of the summer comes in, the French public health authority said.

There were 817 excess deaths recorded from 27 July to August 20, adding to 5,764 excess deaths from June 17 to July 2, 1,243 from July 3 to 20 and 95 during an early summer heatwave spike from May 24 to 28.

It is too early to directly link all the deaths to the heatwave but the toll already provides a striking illustration of the cost of the summer heatwaves in a country where infrastructure and lifestyle is often poorly equipped to deal with extreme heat.

"This summer of 2026 was completely unprecedented, with almost continuous heatwave episodes," Guillaume Boulanger, head of the living and working environments unit at France's public health authority, told AFP.

Many in France still remember the 2003 heatwave, which struck at the peak of the summer holidays when hospitals were understaffed and elderly relatives left alone. It resulted in some 15,000 deaths.

But according to France's weather authority, the summer of 2026 was the hottest since 1900, surpassing 2003 and another severe spell of heat in 2022.

Climate change, caused primarily by the burning of coal, oil, and gas associated with human activities, increases the likelihood of experiencing such heatwave episodes that are extremely intense, prolonged, and geographically widespread.

This year in France, old people were particularly badly hit with a large number of excess deaths recorded from August 14-16 just after the very hottest days.

But the deadliest heatwave was the first major episode from June 17 to July 2, which occurred before the summer holidays began and when education, business and work activities were still in full swing in France, the authority said.