One mark for each person Maricopa County counted as a heat death in 2023, sorted again by what the
county's own tables say about them.
Marks in blocks of a hundred. Table A. Heat-Related Deaths by Year in Maricopa County, 2021-2025.
Maricopa County Department of Public Health, 2025 Heat-Related Deaths Report, p. 21.
Heat caused some of these deaths and contributed to others; the county counts both:
“For the purposes of this report, heat-caused and heat-contributed deaths are combined and referred to as ‘heat-related deaths.’”
“Please note that most jurisdictions report only heat-caused deaths.”
“Another large increase is evident from 2022 to 2023, with an increase of more than 47% to a new record high of 625 cases in Maricopa County last summer.”
City of Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, 2024 Heat Response Plan, 2024; page not marked
The county's table for 2023 counts 645 deaths: 20 more than
the city's plan printed. The city's next plan gives 645:
“A total of 602 heat-related deaths occurred in 2024, a reduction from 645 reported in 2023 and the first year-over-year reduction reported since 2014.”
City of Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, 2025 Heat Response Plan, 2025; page not marked
It holds. The county's table counts 457 of 645 deaths on a day under
an excessive heat warning: 70.9 percent. The county's own report for the next
year gives 72 percent:
“In 2024, 39% of heat-related deaths occurred during an excessive heat warning, a decrease from 2023, when 72% of deaths occurred during an excessive heat warning.”
“In Maricopa County, 330 died last year as a result of methamphetamine use and heat exposure — nearly triple the number of deaths attributed to meth and heat just three years earlier, Maricopa County records show.”
The county's table counts 363 deaths with drugs or alcohol involved,
and among them 321 with stimulants, the class of drugs methamphetamine
belongs to. Neither is 330, and no table of the county's read here prints that number for
methamphetamine.
What the county’s tables can’t tell you
Who is in two groups at once
The appendix prints three sorts, each on its own: by injury location, by living situation, and substance use involvement.
None is crossed with another, so they cannot say how many of the people without a home died outdoors, or how many
of the indoor deaths involved drugs. The county answers further questions by request:
“To receive additional data, please submit a data request form through the Maricopa County Public Health website.”
The county records why an indoor death had no cooling:
“For the purposes of this report, reasons for not having a cooled environment at the time of death in indoor cases where an A/C unit was present were grouped into three categories: nonfunctioning, functioning but turned off, and no electricity.”
Its tables print no row for it. Table B counts 138 indoor deaths for 2024; the report gives their cooling only as rounded shares, and a share of a share
cannot be turned back into a count:
“Among indoor heat-related deaths, an air-conditioning (AC) unit was present in 88% of cases. Among deaths where an AC unit was present, the unit was not functioning in 70% of cases.”
The appendix begins in 2021. The county’s reports for earlier years read here give the deaths of
people without a home as a share of the year, or as a change from another:
“Twelve percent of all heat-associated deaths in 2014 were homeless.”
Every number here was read by code from the passage of the report or story that prints it, and every share and
difference was worked out from those numbers; none was typed in. The marks are drawn from the county’s 2025 appendix.
The sources, each linked to where it was published: