In the third quarter of 2022, the death rate in the EU increased in July and August compared with the previous months, to 16.8 % of the average number for the same period in 2016-2019 (it was 8.2 % in June). There were around 61 000 additional deaths in July 2022. This is an unusually high number for this month: the excess mortality rate was 2.8 % in July 2020 (10 000 excess deaths) and 5.6 % in July 2021 (21 000 excess deaths). In August 2022, excess mortality was again higher compared with the same month of the past two years: 13.5 % (49 000 additional deaths), versus an excess mortality rate of 7.7 % in August 2020 (28 000 excess deaths) and 9.0 % in August 2021 (33 000 excess deaths).