France recorded 2,025 excess deaths during the last week of June, Sante Publique France reported on July 3, as the country emerged from its most severe early-summer heatwave on record. Deaths rose 29 percent nationally in the week of June 22-28 compared to baseline, with the Paris region (Ile-de-France) seeing a 62 percent increase.
The figures are preliminary and likely to rise, the agency’s electronic death certificate system captures only about 60 percent of national mortality, with lower coverage for at-home deaths (25 percent) and nursing homes (45 percent) compared to hospitals (roughly 80 percent). More than 85 percent of the excess deaths were in people aged 65 and older, and French Health Minister Stephanie Rist reported a “clear increase” among those over 45.
The heatwave that caused these deaths broke records on consecutive days. On June 23, the national thermal indicator, the average temperature across France’s network of weather stations, reached 29.8 degrees Celsius (85.6 degrees Fahrenheit), surpassing the previous all-time record set in July 2019 and August 2003. The very next day, it reached 30.0 degrees Celsius (86.0 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the record again. The highest temperature recorded at a single station was 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 degrees Fahrenheit) at Pissos in the Landes department. Paris hit 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a June record. At the peak, 58 departments, two-thirds of the country, were under red alert, covering 52 percent of the population.
A continent under heat
France was not alone. The Netherlands reported roughly 480 excess deaths, most among those aged 80 and older, concentrated in the south and east where temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius. Belgium reported 1,222 excess deaths, a 39 percent increase above normal, with nearly half among those aged 85 and older. Belgium’s health ministry described the number as “unprecedented.”
Portugal declared a state of alert. Spain’s southwest faced orange-level warnings. Across the continent, the heat has also fueled wildfires: roughly 7,000 fires have been recorded since the start of the summer in France alone, burning approximately 8,700 hectares, and 3,000 people were evacuated from two coastal towns in the Pyrenees-Orientales department. Drowning deaths in France since June 18 reached 72, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez reported.
The climate connection
Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at roughly twice the global average rate, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Climate attribution analysis of the June 2026 heatwave found that temperatures in Paris were 2.4 degrees Celsius hotter than they would have been without human-caused climate change.
The June 2003 heatwave, which killed approximately 15,000 people in France, prompted the creation of the Plan Canicule early warning system in 2004. That system has saved lives, the July 2019 heatwave killed roughly 2,500 people despite higher peak temperatures. But the June 2026 event, arriving earlier in the summer than any comparable extreme, caught a population with less heat acclimatization and tests even the improved warning infrastructure. The 58 departments under red alert were the highest number ever recorded by Meteo-France.
This story is a follow-up to the heatwave death estimate covered by 1ban.news on July 3, which reported a statistical model projecting approximately 20,390 excess deaths across Europe during the same period. The France-specific figures from Sante Publique France are the first official death counts to be released.
Sources
- “Europe heatwave: France records 2,025 excess deaths as Europe braces for more extreme weather.” BBC News, July 3, 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ry307rxqro
- Sante Publique France. “Update on all-cause mortality for the period from June 22 to 28, 2026.” July 3, 2026.
- Meteo-France heatwave bulletins, June 23-28, 2026.