Report identifies eight Italian regions among Europe’s 10 most heat-exposed areas for older people, highlighting concerns over extreme temperatures and social isolation
By Bunmi Yekini
Elderly people living alone in Italy’s Lombardia region face the highest exposure to extreme heat in Europe, with nearly half of residents aged 85 and above living without another household member, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by crisis management software provider Intersec, found that 179,421 people aged 85 and older in Lombardia live alone, representing 49.6% of the region’s population in that age group.
The region experiences an average of 25.6 tropical nights annually, when temperatures remain above 20 degrees Celsius, potentially limiting opportunities for the body to cool down after hot days.
The September 2026 report examined the relationship between extreme heat exposure and the number of elderly people living alone across European regions, identifying areas where older residents could face additional challenges during heatwaves.
Italy accounted for eight of the 10 regions identified in the study, with Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, Sicilia, Veneto, Toscana and Campania also featuring prominently. Spain had two regions, while France was represented by Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
Lazio ranked second, with 97,157 people aged 85 and above living alone, accounting for 47.7% of the region’s population in that age group. The region records an average of 33.1 tropical nights annually.
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur was the only French region in the top 10. The study found that 91,891 residents aged 85 and above, or 45.3%, live alone, while the region experiences an average of 19.8 tropical nights each year.
Emilia-Romagna recorded 89,236 elderly people living alone, representing 47.7% of its population aged 85 and above, alongside 34.6 tropical nights annually.
In Spain, Cataluña had 82,912 people aged 85 and above living alone, equivalent to 33.4% of its elderly population, while the region experiences 28.2 tropical nights annually.
Sicilia recorded the highest proportion of elderly people living alone among the 10 regions, at 51.4%, with 81,183 people affected. It also experienced the longest period of tropical nights, averaging 85.2 annually.
The findings come amid concerns over the vulnerability of older people during extreme heat. A 2025 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that people aged 65 and above account for 85% of heatwave deaths in the European Union.
Commenting on the findings, an emergency specialist at Intersec said authorities in high-risk regions needed to ensure that emergency warnings reached vulnerable residents and reflected the demographic characteristics of affected communities.
The specialist said location-based text messaging could help authorities tailor emergency communications, adding that recipients could also forward alerts to relatives and friends to extend their reach.
The study used 2021 European census data and climate observations from the Copernicus European Climate Data Explorer covering 1991 to 2020.
Researchers examined 249 European statistical regions classified under the NUTS2 system, selecting the 50 hottest regions, representing the top fifth, based on an average of at least 15 tropical nights annually.
They then counted residents aged 85 and above living alone in those regions, using household status recorded in the census. Across all 249 regions, 5.8 million people in this age group lived alone.
The analysis found that 1,667,936 people aged 85 and above lived alone in Europe’s hottest fifth of regions. Including those aged 65 to 84 brought the figure to 6.77 million.
Researchers said the ranking reflected the number of elderly people living alone in heat-exposed regions, rather than a direct measurement of individual heat risk or predictions of heat-related deaths.
They also cautioned that living alone was used as a proxy for social isolation and did not necessarily mean that an individual lacked support from relatives, neighbours or community networks.
The study did not account for access to air conditioning, healthcare capacity or local emergency preparedness. It also excluded people living in institutional care, such as nursing homes, because the census measure focused on private households.
Researchers said the findings should therefore be interpreted as an assessment of heat exposure and household vulnerability rather than a comprehensive measure of climate risk.