Annual U.S. Heat Deaths
From 2004 to 2018, the national number of heat-related deaths compiled by the CDC was low: on average, around 700 a year. The number has crept up in recent years, now averaging around 1,700 but sometimes topping 2,000, as heat risks grow and counting strategies evolve.
A split bars graph with three columns of bars is labelled "Annual U.S. Heat Deaths." The leftmost column is labelled "CDC heat deaths" with eight rows labelled 2018 through 2025 and values range from a low of 911 in 2019 to a high of 2,415 in 2025. The middle column is labelled "Scaled modeled heat deaths" and values range from a low of 7162 in 2018 to a high of 11836 in 2020. The third column is labelled "Difference (scaled - CDC)" and values range from a low of 6150 in 2018 to a high of 10680 in 2020.
