Extreme heat risks to pregnancy driven by climate change: Europe
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 2020 to 2024, nearly all analyzed countries in Europe (51 out of 52) experienced at least 10 additional pregnancy heat-risk days on average each year due to climate change.
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Malta experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year (37) on average annually.
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In most European countries (43 out of 52), climate change at least doubled the average annual number of pregnancy heat-risk days compared to a world without climate change.
Explore data for countries and cities across Europe in the interactive maps below.
Countries 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).