Global socioeconomic disparities in exposure to extreme heat

James C. Coelho, Joel D. Schwartz, Petros Koutrakis and Weeberb J. Requia ()
Additional contact information
James C. Coelho: Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Center for Environment and Public Health studies, School of Public Policy and Government
Joel D. Schwartz: Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Boston, Department of Environmental Health
Petros Koutrakis: Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Boston, Department of Environmental Health
Weeberb J. Requia: Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Center for Environment and Public Health studies, School of Public Policy and Government

Climatic Change, 2025, vol. 178, issue 12, No 12, 16 pages

Abstract: Abstract Extreme temperature exposure poses significant health risks, with disparities evident across different locations and populations. We investigate the disparities in temperature exposure worldwide in 2016. Extreme heat data were obtained from NASAs Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, which provide annual counts of days where the maximum Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGTmax) exceeded thresholds of 28, 30, and 32 °C in 2016. These data have a spatial resolution of approximately 5 km grid-cell. Socioeconomic data were sourced from the Global Gridded Relative Deprivation Index (GRDIv1), measured for 2016, which measures multidimensional deprivation at a spatial resolution of approximately 1 km. We employ generalized additive models (GAMs) to analyze the data, stratifying by continent and rural/urban areas. Our results show that globally, higher deprivation levels are associated with significantly greater exposure to extreme heat. For WBGTmax > 28 °C, the most affluent 10% of grid cells experienced on average 0.037 fewer extreme heat days per year (95% CI: −0.041, −0.032), while the most deprived 10% experienced 5.712 additional days (95% CI: 5.680, 5.744) compared to the global average. Similar patterns were observed at WBGTmax thresholds of 30 °C and 32 °C, although associations were attenuated at higher thresholds. Substantial regional variations were observed. In Africa and South America, extreme heat exposure increased sharply with higher deprivation. In contrast, in parts of North America, Asia, and Oceania, deprived areas exhibited weaker or even negative associations with extreme heat exposure. Urban and rural stratifications revealed that urban poor populations were particularly vulnerable in Africa and South America, while rural disadvantages dominated in parts of Asia. These findings highlight profound global inequalities in climate risks and suggest that social deprivation is associated with greater exposure burdens to extreme heat. Targeted interventions considering regional socioeconomic contexts are urgently needed to protect at-risk populations.

Keywords: Extreme heat; Disparities; Socioeconomic vulnerability; Global analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-025-04075-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:climat:v:178:y:2025:i:12:d:10.1007_s10584-025-04075-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584

DOI: 10.1007/s10584-025-04075-3

Access Statistics for this article

Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe

More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().