Extreme heat risks to pregnancy driven by climate change: Italy

2020 to 2024

We counted the number of days with temperatures warmer than 95% of temperatures observed at a given location (also referred to as temperatures above the 95th percentile) — a threshold which research1 shows can bring increased risk of preterm birth. We define these extremely hot days as “pregnancy heat-risk days.”

  • During the past five years, Italy experienced an average of 22 additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year.

  • Climate change accounted for 63% of the average annual number of pregnancy heat-risk days in Italy during 2020 to 2024 (22 of 35 days).

  • Rome experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year (25) on average during the past five years (of all analyzed cities in Italy).

  • In Milan, around three-quarters of the pregnancy heat-risk days experienced on average annually were added by climate change (21 out of 28 days).

Explore data for regions and cities across Italy in the interactive maps below.


Regions with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change




Cities with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change



1We chose this percentile based on peer-reviewed research from Kuehn et al. (2017), Wang et al. (2013), Wang et al. (2024), and McElroy et al. (2022).