Statistics: A global view of unintentional drowning fatalities

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This interactive dashboard presents national-level data for unintentional drowning fatalities worldwide. Drowning fatality data is adjusted according to national population data to provide an injury rate per 100,000 people. Here are some of the high-level findings: 

• Iceland has the fewest unintentional drowning fatalities and the lowest injury rate per 100,000 people in Europe, with only three fatalities in 2021. 
• Iceland, Austria, and the UK have a very low injury rate of less than 0.32 per 100,000 people.
• Lithuania reduced its injury rate by 5.15 between 2000-2021, Europe's most improved country in terms of its unintentional drowning fatal injury rate. Latvia and Estonia closely followed Lithuania. Romania also saw substantial improvements. 
• In 2022, the UK had the lowest unintentional drowning fatal injury rate amongst large European countries at 0.32 and the third lowest injury rate across European countries. 
• The USA reported the most unintentional drowning fatalities in our sample of countries at 4,589 in 2020. 
• Australia reported the largest and most recent increase in unintentional drowning fatal injury rate between 2020-2022 of 0.97 to 1.30. Cyprus also experienced a sharp increase in the injury rate between 2015-2018 (1.01 to 2.87), which has since returned to 2013 levels. 

Citation: Jacklin, D. 2023. A global view of unintentional drowning fatalities. Water Incident Research Hub, 1 July.