You sent me to the books because this is such a fascinating stat. It's true! Heat deaths in the US: 5 per million people. Italy: 500+ per million people. I had no idea.

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laurencerowe 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Figures based on coroners reports are somewhat suspect.

> In September 2022, a vicious heat wave enveloped much of the western U.S., placing tens of millions of people under heat advisories. Temperatures across California soared into the triple digits. Sacramento broke its heat record by more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit when the temperature hit 116 degrees.

> California death certificates showed that 20 people died as a result of heat-related illness from Aug. 31, 2022 to Sept. 9, 2022.

> But a study last year by California’s Department of Public Health found that death rates increased by about 5 percent statewide during the heat wave, causing 395 additional deaths.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-deaths-from-h...

Excess mortality studies seem to show about 24 per 100,000 excess deaths from heat in Europe vs 6 in US/Canada.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34245712/

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guerby an hour ago | parent [-]

Thanks for the paper link, very different figures from the random USA newspaper article :)

I'd love to see an age adjusted figure as well as it's likely Europe has likely more very old people and my guess is that heat/cold mortality is concentrated in the very old people.

	▲	Zigurd 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's not the most convenient format because of their idea of what constitutes a region, but yeah, the US has a pyramid shaped population pyramid, while European regions have a big bulge of old people: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/references/population...
	▲	laurencerowe 15 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I suspect age distributions are part of the story. Also the Eastern US (where most of the population lives) experiences much larger swings in temperature between winter and summer so maybe people are just more prepared for it.

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CorrectHorseBat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I do think we'll need to change our view on airconditioning, every home should have airconditioning just like it has heating.

But I'm very sceptical of those numbers. They are apparently even worse for cold, and you can't attribute that to lack of airconditioning. I still think the huge difference can only be attributed to a difference in reporting.

	▲	irishcoffee 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Which way? For all we know the numbers are much worse and under-reported by Europe. China made the playbook for that a long time ago. Cuts both ways.