This represents 0.1% of injury hospitalisations and 1.7% of injury deaths.
Both swimming pools and natural bodies of water were common locations of drowning and submersion accidents that led to hospitalisation, while natural bodies of water were the most common location for drowning deaths. Males were 3.3 times as likely to die from drowning as females. Children aged under 5 had the highest rate of hospitalisation.
This report summarises data on accidental drowning and submersion events only. Intentional events are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide. Falling overboard from a watercraft is included under Transport accidents.
Swimming pools are the most common location of drowning and submersion accidents that lead to hospital admission, closely followed by natural bodies of water (Table 1).
Table 1: Locations of drowning and submersion accidents which led to hospitalisation, 2020–21
Location
|
Hospitalisations
|
%
|
Rate (per 100,000)
|
Swimming pool (including following a fall into a pool) (W67–68)
|
163
|
29
|
0.6
|
Natural water (including following a fall into natural water) (W69–70)
|
158
|
28
|
0.6
|
Bathtub (including following a fall into a bathtub) (W65–66)
|
42
|
7
|
0.2
|
Other or unspecified (W73–74)
|
203
|
36
|
0.8
|
Total
|
566
|
100
|
2.2
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database
Natural bodies of water are the most common location of drowning and submersion accidents that led to death (Table 2).
Table 2: Locations of drowning and submersion accidents which led to death, 2019–20
Location
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate (per 100,000)
|
Natural water (including following a fall into natural water) (W69–70)
|
121
|
54
|
0.5
|
Swimming pool (including following a fall into a pool) (W67–68)
|
36
|
16
|
0.1
|
Bathtub (including following a fall into a bathtub) (W65–66)
|
13
|
6
|
0.1
|
Other, unspecified or elsewhere classified (W73–74, T75.1)
|
54
|
24
|
0.2
|
Total
|
224
|
100
|
0.9
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).
Source: AIHW National Mortality Database
For more detail, see Data tables B3–4 and E4–5.
Hospital admissions due to drowning and submersion show a strong seasonal pattern, and are highest in summer.
The interactive display shows other seasonal changes in injury hospitalisations.

Notes
1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale-up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
The age-standardised rate of hospitalisations due to drowning and submersion in 2020–21 was 4.9% higher than the previous year.
Over the period from 2011–12 to 2016–17 there was an average annual increase of 4.2%.
There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18 due to a change in data collection methods (see the technical notes for details).
For drowning deaths, the age-standardised rate for 2019–20 was 15% lower than a year earlier. The average annual decrease in rate between 2011–12 and 2019–20 was 5.0% (Figure 2).