Children Face Three Times More Heat Stress Than Adults Worldwide

As many as 583 million children worldwide may experience at least 20 days of health-threatening heat stress every year, according to an international study published in Science Advances. The researchers found that children aged 0 to 9 face greater exposure than any other age group.

The study used days when the wet-bulb globe temperature, an index combining heat and humidity, exceeded 28 degrees as a measure of heat stress. Children in the youngest age group experienced an average of 28 such days annually, compared with 19 days for adults aged 60 to 69.

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This means that younger generations experience three times more heat-stress exposure than older generations.

Population size explains part of the difference. The world has about 1.3 billion children aged 0 to 9 and around 600 million people aged 60 to 69. But the exposure rate is also higher among children: 44% of children face at least 20 days of heat stress, compared with 30% of older adults.

The researchers linked the disparity partly to where children live. Heat stress is expected to increase more sharply in low-latitude tropical and less-developed regions, where children make up a larger share of the population. In Côte d’Ivoire, children aged 0 to 9 account for 27% of the population, and the country currently experiences an estimated 112 heat-stress days a year, including 53 attributed to climate change. Germany records about 0.1 such days annually, while children make up 9% of its population.

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Younger generations will live in a world that is hotter than today and face multiple climate threats, including higher heat-stress exposure throughout their lives.

West Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia were identified as particularly exposed regions. At present, 11% of young children experience more than 100 heat-stress days a year. That share is projected to reach 13% at 1.5 degrees of warming and 23% at 2 degrees. Among adults aged 60 to 69, the share would rise from 6% now to 9% and 17%, respectively.

The relative gap between age groups may narrow over time because extreme increases will be concentrated in low-latitude regions, even as exposure rises across all ages. Lead author Rosa Pietroiusti of Vrije Universiteit Brussel said many children have few ways to protect themselves because of poverty, poor housing, limited access to cooling and weak health systems. She said children in developing countries contributed least to historical greenhouse-gas emissions but face disproportionate exposure to climate change.

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Many children have almost no way to protect themselves from heatwaves because of poverty, poor housing, a lack of cooling and limits in health systems.