Statistics: UK drowning fatalities by year

Feb 07, 2022

This statistical bulletin contains information on the UK drowning fatalities reported by the United Kingdom Water Incident Database ("UK WAID").

Trends in UK drowning fatalities

UK drowning fatalities across five years have halved between 1985-1989 and 2015-2019.
The rate of injury has dropped from 4.79 to 2.04 per 100,000 people.
In 24 of 37 years between 1983 and 2020, the UK has decreased the injury rate.
The injury rate in 2022 was fewer than 1 in every 100,000 people.
On average, around 250 will die from drowning in the coming year; that's one person every 1.5 days. Many more will survive but with life-changing injuries.

Interactive dashboard - UK drowning data in the global context

Table 1: UK drowning fatalities by year published by the UK WAID

	1985-1989	1990-1994	1995-1999	2000-2004	2005-2009	2010-2014	2015-2019
Accidental drowning fatalities	2,722	2,270	2,491	2,095	1,990	1,917	1,347
Rate of injury per 100,000 people	4.79	3.94	4.27	3.53	3.24	3.01	2.04

_{GREEN = Fewer drownings than the previous year, RED = More drownings than the previous year}

Table 2: UK drowning fatalities by year published by the UK WAID

Year	UK accidental drowning fatalities	UK population	Rate of injury per 100,000 people
1983	637	56,315,700	1.13
1984	535	56,409,300	0.95
1985	599	56,554,000	1.06
1986	563	56,683,800	0.99
1987	461	56,804,000	0.81
1988	571	56,916,400	1.00
1989	528	57,076,500	0.93
1990	496	57,237,500	0.87
1991	446	57,438,700	0.78
1992	496	57,584,500	0.86
1993	384	57,713,900	0.67
1994	448	57,862,100	0.77
1995	473	58,024,800	0.82
1996	441	58,164,400	0.76
1997	440	58,314,200	0.75
1998	568	58,474,900	0.97
1999	569	58,684,400	0.97
2000	498	58,886,100	0.85
2001	430	59,113,000	0.73
2002	427	59,365,700	0.72
2003	381	59,636,700	0.64
2004	359	59,950,400	0.60
2005	435	60,413,300	0.72
2006	401	60,827,100	0.66
2007	373	61,319,100	0.61
2008	376	61,823,800	0.61
2009	405	62,260,500	0.65
2010	420	62,759,500	0.67
2011	407	63,285,100	0.64
2012	371	63,705,000	0.58
2013	381	64,105,700	0.59
2014	338	64,596,800	0.52
2015	321	65,110,000	0.49
2016	285	65,648,100	0.43
2017	255	66,040,200	0.39
2018	263	66,435,600	0.40
2019	223	66,796,800	0.33
2020	254	67,081,000	0.38
2021	275	67,026,292	0.41
2022	226	Yet to be released	n/a

References

RoSPA. 2022. Water safety and drowning. Available at: https://www.rospa.com/leisure-water-safety/water accessed 7 February 2022.

UK National Water Safety Forum. 2009-2019. Annual reports and data. Available at: https://www.nationalwatersafety.org.uk/waid/annual-reports-and-data accessed 7 February 2022.

Citation. Jacklin, D. 2023. UK statistics for drowning fatalities by year. Water Incident Research Hub, 30 January; Updated 18 July 2023.