Excess mortality in the EU climbed to +16% in July 2022 from +7% in both June and May. This was the highest value on record so far in 2022, amounting to around 53 000 additional deaths in July this year compared with the monthly averages for 2016-2019. This was an unusually high value for this month. The excess mortality rate was +3% in July 2020 (10 000 excess deaths) and +6% in July 2021 (21 000 excess deaths). Based on the available information, some of the mortality increase in July 2022 compared to the same month of the past two years may be due to the heatwaves that have affected parts of Europe during the reference period. This information comes from data on excess mortality published by Eurostat today, based on a weekly deaths data collection. The arti