Extreme heat risks to pregnancy driven by climate change: United Kingdom
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.”
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During the past five years, the U.K. experienced an average of 13 additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year.
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Climate change doubled the average annual number of pregnancy heat-risk days in the U.K. during 2020 to 2024 (adding 13 of 26 days), compared to a world without climate change.
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In London, climate change accounted for 42% of the average annual number of pregnancy heat-risk days during the past five years (10 out of 24 days).
Explore data for regions and cities across the United Kingdom 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).