Data
Potential work hours lost to heat, world
Working hours that heat stress could have cost each year worldwide, 1990–2024, in services, manufacturing, agriculture and construction, as estimated by the Lancet Countdown (indicator 1.1.3).
Latest value
639.9bn hours
World, 2024. Version 2025 report.
Potential work hours lost to heat, world (billion hours)
Potential work hours lost to heat, world (billion hours)
Show as a table
| Period | Sector | Value (bn hours) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | All four sectors | 295.0 | final |
| 1991 | All four sectors | 297.1 | final |
| 1992 | All four sectors | 283.4 | final |
| 1993 | All four sectors | 296.7 | final |
| 1994 | All four sectors | 320.5 | final |
| 1995 | All four sectors | 336.3 | final |
| 1996 | All four sectors | 322.3 | final |
| 1997 | All four sectors | 324.2 | final |
| 1998 | All four sectors | 410.1 | final |
| 1999 | All four sectors | 343.8 | final |
| 2000 | All four sectors | 356.8 | final |
| 2001 | All four sectors | 363.9 | final |
| 2002 | All four sectors | 386.9 | final |
| 2003 | All four sectors | 392.3 | final |
| 2004 | All four sectors | 382.9 | final |
| 2005 | All four sectors | 406.8 | final |
| 2006 | All four sectors | 408.5 | final |
| 2007 | All four sectors | 407.3 | final |
| 2008 | All four sectors | 379.8 | final |
| 2009 | All four sectors | 426.1 | final |
| 2010 | All four sectors | 476.3 | final |
| 2011 | All four sectors | 402.2 | final |
| 2012 | All four sectors | 420.7 | final |
| 2013 | All four sectors | 431.4 | final |
| 2014 | All four sectors | 434.3 | final |
| 2015 | All four sectors | 446.7 | final |
| 2016 | All four sectors | 499.7 | final |
| 2017 | All four sectors | 482.4 | final |
| 2018 | All four sectors | 462.9 | final |
| 2019 | All four sectors | 497.9 | final |
| 2020 | All four sectors | 487.7 | final |
| 2021 | All four sectors | 486.3 | final |
| 2022 | All four sectors | 523.0 | final |
| 2023 | All four sectors | 550.5 | final |
| 2024 | All four sectors | 639.9 | final |
| 1990 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 11.1 | final |
| 1991 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 11.3 | final |
| 1992 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 10.4 | final |
| 1993 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 12.0 | final |
| 1994 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 13.6 | final |
| 1995 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 15.3 | final |
| 1996 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 14.2 | final |
| 1997 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 14.4 | final |
| 1998 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 21.7 | final |
| 1999 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 16.0 | final |
| 2000 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 16.8 | final |
| 2001 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 17.9 | final |
| 2002 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 20.2 | final |
| 2003 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 21.2 | final |
| 2004 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 20.5 | final |
| 2005 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 23.5 | final |
| 2006 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 23.9 | final |
| 2007 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 24.5 | final |
| 2008 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 21.7 | final |
| 2009 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 26.4 | final |
| 2010 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 32.9 | final |
| 2011 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 26.1 | final |
| 2012 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 28.6 | final |
| 2013 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 31.2 | final |
| 2014 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 32.1 | final |
| 2015 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 34.5 | final |
| 2016 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 42.8 | final |
| 2017 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 41.5 | final |
| 2018 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 40.0 | final |
| 2019 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 45.5 | final |
| 2020 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 42.8 | final |
| 2021 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 41.0 | final |
| 2022 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 45.9 | final |
| 2023 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 50.4 | final |
| 2024 | Services (indoors or in shade) | 63.8 | final |
| 1990 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 15.0 | final |
| 1991 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 14.9 | final |
| 1992 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 13.7 | final |
| 1993 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 14.8 | final |
| 1994 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 17.5 | final |
| 1995 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 18.3 | final |
| 1996 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 17.1 | final |
| 1997 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 17.3 | final |
| 1998 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 24.0 | final |
| 1999 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 18.6 | final |
| 2000 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 19.7 | final |
| 2001 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 20.4 | final |
| 2002 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 22.0 | final |
| 2003 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 23.0 | final |
| 2004 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 22.2 | final |
| 2005 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 25.2 | final |
| 2006 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 25.7 | final |
| 2007 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 26.1 | final |
| 2008 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 23.4 | final |
| 2009 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 26.9 | final |
| 2010 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 32.0 | final |
| 2011 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 26.6 | final |
| 2012 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 29.6 | final |
| 2013 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 32.2 | final |
| 2014 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 32.0 | final |
| 2015 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 33.3 | final |
| 2016 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 40.0 | final |
| 2017 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 39.0 | final |
| 2018 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 37.7 | final |
| 2019 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 40.5 | final |
| 2020 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 38.5 | final |
| 2021 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 38.3 | final |
| 2022 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 42.4 | final |
| 2023 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 45.2 | final |
| 2024 | Manufacturing (indoors or in shade) | 56.0 | final |
| 1990 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 251.9 | final |
| 1991 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 253.2 | final |
| 1992 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 242.2 | final |
| 1993 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 251.1 | final |
| 1994 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 268.5 | final |
| 1995 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 280.2 | final |
| 1996 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 268.5 | final |
| 1997 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 269.3 | final |
| 1998 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 335.8 | final |
| 1999 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 284.5 | final |
| 2000 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 294.4 | final |
| 2001 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 298.0 | final |
| 2002 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 314.1 | final |
| 2003 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 316.3 | final |
| 2004 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 307.0 | final |
| 2005 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 321.1 | final |
| 2006 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 318.6 | final |
| 2007 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 313.1 | final |
| 2008 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 291.3 | final |
| 2009 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 322.1 | final |
| 2010 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 350.7 | final |
| 2011 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 295.5 | final |
| 2012 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 303.9 | final |
| 2013 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 306.9 | final |
| 2014 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 306.3 | final |
| 2015 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 309.9 | final |
| 2016 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 339.0 | final |
| 2017 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 324.1 | final |
| 2018 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 307.9 | final |
| 2019 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 328.2 | final |
| 2020 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 327.4 | final |
| 2021 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 324.2 | final |
| 2022 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 339.6 | final |
| 2023 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 360.3 | final |
| 2024 | Agriculture (in the sun) | 406.5 | final |
| 1990 | Construction (in the sun) | 17.1 | final |
| 1991 | Construction (in the sun) | 17.7 | final |
| 1992 | Construction (in the sun) | 17.0 | final |
| 1993 | Construction (in the sun) | 18.8 | final |
| 1994 | Construction (in the sun) | 21.0 | final |
| 1995 | Construction (in the sun) | 22.6 | final |
| 1996 | Construction (in the sun) | 22.6 | final |
| 1997 | Construction (in the sun) | 23.2 | final |
| 1998 | Construction (in the sun) | 28.5 | final |
| 1999 | Construction (in the sun) | 24.7 | final |
| 2000 | Construction (in the sun) | 25.8 | final |
| 2001 | Construction (in the sun) | 27.5 | final |
| 2002 | Construction (in the sun) | 30.7 | final |
| 2003 | Construction (in the sun) | 31.9 | final |
| 2004 | Construction (in the sun) | 33.2 | final |
| 2005 | Construction (in the sun) | 37.0 | final |
| 2006 | Construction (in the sun) | 40.3 | final |
| 2007 | Construction (in the sun) | 43.7 | final |
| 2008 | Construction (in the sun) | 43.4 | final |
| 2009 | Construction (in the sun) | 50.7 | final |
| 2010 | Construction (in the sun) | 60.6 | final |
| 2011 | Construction (in the sun) | 53.9 | final |
| 2012 | Construction (in the sun) | 58.6 | final |
| 2013 | Construction (in the sun) | 61.1 | final |
| 2014 | Construction (in the sun) | 64.0 | final |
| 2015 | Construction (in the sun) | 69.0 | final |
| 2016 | Construction (in the sun) | 77.8 | final |
| 2017 | Construction (in the sun) | 77.8 | final |
| 2018 | Construction (in the sun) | 77.4 | final |
| 2019 | Construction (in the sun) | 83.7 | final |
| 2020 | Construction (in the sun) | 79.0 | final |
| 2021 | Construction (in the sun) | 82.8 | final |
| 2022 | Construction (in the sun) | 95.1 | final |
| 2023 | Construction (in the sun) | 94.6 | final |
| 2024 | Construction (in the sun) | 113.5 | final |
Calculated by Environment Dashboard from Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change 2025 report data: indicator 1.1.1 by A. J. Pershing and J. Giguere (attributable heatwave days) and by F. Tartarini and O. Jay (vulnerable populations); indicator 1.1.3 by C. Freyberg, B. Lemke and M. Otto; indicator 1.1.5 by J. Ballester, X. Basagaña and J. Ruiz-Cabrejos. Romanello et al., The Lancet, 2025, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01919-1. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Changes: work hours lost converted from thousands of hours to billions of hours. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Where it comes from
- Producer
- Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (led by University College London) · Lancet Countdown 2025: heat-related deaths, work hours lost to heat and heatwave exposure
- Version
- 2025 report
- Fetched
- 2026-10-04 (automatically), 1,510,290 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 36d16d2ba3acb43e333fca86f6873b558f9ea4816ea97c740bb5b85c228413cbETag "170b92-6425ae0fd29e4" · Last-Modified Thu, 30 Oct 2025 07:05:49 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- Romanello M, Walawender M, Hsu S-C, et al. The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change. Lancet 2025; published online Oct 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01919-1.
What was done to it
Read the sheet '2025 Report Data_Global' of the indicator 1.1.3 workbook of the Lancet Countdown 2025 report, 1990–2024: potential work hours lost in services (WHL200Serv), manufacturing (WHL300Manuf), agriculture (WHL400sunAgr), construction (WHL400sunConstr) and in total (TotalSunAgCon), in thousands of hours as the guidance sheet states.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/impacts/lancet_countdown.py · code sha256 fd77ef680e809205… · inputs 36d16d2ba3ac…
Checked that the total equals the sum of the four sectors in every year (to one part in a billion).
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/impacts/lancet_countdown.py · code sha256 fd77ef680e809205… · inputs 36d16d2ba3ac…
Divided every value by one million to give billions of hours (exact decimal arithmetic on the values as stored in the workbook). Employment and hours lost per worker are not published here.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/impacts/lancet_countdown.py · code sha256 fd77ef680e809205… · inputs 36d16d2ba3ac…
What it covers
- Geography
- World
- Basis
- Potential hours lost: wet bulb globe temperature from ERA5 linked to the metabolic rate of typical work (services 200 W and manufacturing 300 W in shade, agriculture and construction 400 W in the sun), applied to employed people aged 15 and over in each sector. Formal employment only. The producer notes that from 2020 grid cells shared between countries are handled differently, which may show as a step between 2019 and 2020.
- Unit
- billion hours (bn hours)