18/9/2020
A deep dive into the Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2020
Royal Life Saving’s National Drowning Report, published on 18th September 2020, highlights many recurring themes. Each year, we are reminded that this publication is about lives not numbers. Our work is to understand where, how and why drowning occurs in Australia, and what we can do to keep communities safe.
Royal Life Saving data shows that 248 people lost their lives to drowning between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. And it is estimated that a further 504 people experienced a non-fatal drowning incident that required hospitalisation. For drowning deaths, this represents a decrease of 8% on the previous year and a decrease of 12% on the 10-year average.
Sex
As in previous years, 80% of people who drowned were male. People aged 25 to 34 years accounted for 17% of the total number of drowning deaths, the most of any age group; 93% of those aged 25 to 34 were male.
Children
12 children aged 0 to 4 years lost their lives to drowning in 2019/20. This represents a 37% decrease on the previous year and a 52% decrease compared with the 10-year average. Most of these deaths occurred in swimming pools and 75% of them were due to unintentional falls into water.
Almost all drowning deaths in children aged 0 to 4 years are due to a lack of, or lapse in, adult supervision. Royal Life Saving research has found that household chores, such as hanging the washing out, checking on dinner or taking the rubbish out, are the number one cause of distraction.
Season
Most drowning deaths occurred in summer, a trend that has been mirrored for many years. However, the traditional spike in drowning deaths during this time was less marked in the summer of 2019/2020. This year’s report shows that 97 people drowned between December 2019 and February 2020 (39%), compared with 120 drowning deaths (45%) for the same period in the previous year.
Location
Rivers and creeks were once again found to be the leading location for drowning in Australia, accounting for 21% of drowning deaths in 2019/2020. However, deaths in rivers and creeks in the past year decreased by 32%, compared with the 10-year average.
Activities
Swimming and recreating was the leading activity being undertaken immediately prior to drowning (25%), followed by boating (18%) and unintentional falls into water (15%). Royal Life Saving research shows that these top three activities have remained unchanged for over five years. However, of particular note this year, was the increase in drowning deaths while boating.
Pre-existing medical conditions
This year’s report also shows that 50 drowning deaths were known to involve a pre-existing medical condition. These involved mostly men (70%) and those aged 65 years and over (40%). The most common pre-existing medical conditions were cardiac conditions (64%), epilepsy (12%) and mental health conditions (12%).
Visitor status
Most people who drowned did so within 100km of where they lived (67%). Where a person who drowned was known to be a visitor to the location of the incident, 13% drowned within their own State or Territory in a postcode that was 100km or further from their residential postcode, 7% were visiting a different State or Territory when they drowned and 1% were overseas tourists.
Multiple fatality events
Multiple fatality events where more than one person drowns in a single incident claimed the lives of 34 people in 15 incidents in 2019/20. This represents a 36% increase on the 10-year average. Of these deaths, 82% involved males, with the leading activities being boating (76%) and rock fishing (12%).
Crude rate
This year’s National Drowning Report cites a ‘crude rate’ of 2.97, which is the lowest recorded rate since Royal Life Saving records began. This means there were fewer fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents per 100,000 population in the past year compared with previous years.
Crude rate is defined as the number of drowning deaths that occur per 100,000 population based on population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Although this shows some measure of success in preventing drowning in Australia, we know even one drowning incident is one too many.
Drowning is preventable and we all share a responsibility to keep our children, family and friends safe around water. Simple safety measures can make all the difference between a great day out and a tragedy.
To stay safe around water, Royal Life Saving urges all Australians to:
- Supervise children at all times in, on and around water
- Learn swimming, water safety and lifesaving skills
- Wear a lifejacket when boating, rock fishing or paddling
- Avoid alcohol and drugs around water
DOWNLOAD THE ROYAL LIFE SAVING NATIONAL DROWNING REPORT 2020
