KIT study reveals heat exposure disparities across German demographics
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology analyzed how sociodemographic factors correlate with heat exposure across German cities using air and land surface temperature data from summer 2021–2023 combined with 2022 census data. In 84.2% of assessed cities, air temperature was significantly warmer at night in areas with higher shares of residents without German citizenship, while areas with more people over 65 were somewhat cooler on average, with no clear pattern found for rent per person. The researchers note that while their findings show clear spatial correlations between population structure and heat exposure, they cannot determine the underlying causes of these differences or whether they result from socioeconomic inequalities. The results, published in Environmental Research Letters, indicate these disparities are more pronounced in cities than in suburban or rural areas.
