Water-based activities such as swimming and bathing are usually safe, when risks are managed. However, environmental conditions or accidents can lead to submersion injuries or death by drowning. Some submersion injuries can have long-term effects, such as when the brain goes without oxygen for too long.

Drowning and submersion injuries caused:

  • Hospitalisations 2023–24

    592 hospitalisations

    <1% of all injury hospitalisations

    Age-standardised rate of 2.4 per 100,000 population

  • Deaths 2022–23

    272 deaths

    1.8% of all injury deaths

    Age-standardised rate of 1.0 per 100,000 population

Injuries were most likely among:

  • Males (age-standardised rate of 2.8 hospitalisations and 1.4 deaths per 100,000)

  • People aged 0–4 (crude rate of 13.1 hospitalisations per 100,000) and 65 and over (1.9 deaths per 100,000)

  • Accidents involving swimming pools* (crude rate of 0.7 hospitalisations per 100,000) and natural water (0.5 deaths per 100,000)

*for injuries where location was recorded

For drowning and submersion injuries:

  • Hospitalisations 2023–24

    • almost 2 in 3 (60%) were males
    • the age-standardised rate for males (2.8 per 100,000) was 1.5 times the rate for females (1.9 per 100,000)
    • males aged 0–4 had the highest rate (crude rate of 13.7 per 100,000).

  • Deaths 2022–23

    • about 7 in 10 (71%) were males
    • the age-standardised rate for males (1.4 per 100,000) was 2.5 times the rate for females (0.6 per 100,000)
    • males aged 65+ had the highest rate (crude rate of 2.7 deaths per 100,000).

Locations where drowning and submersions occur

  • 227 173 162 Unspecified Pool Natural water

    Hospitalisations 2023–24

    Most drowning and submersion injury hospitalisations were in other or unspecified locations, swimming pools and natural water bodies.

  • 119 42 26 Natural water Pool Tub

    Deaths 2022–23

    Most drowning and submersion injury deaths were in natural water bodies, swimming pools and bathtubs.

Over the past decade, the rate of drowning and submersion injury:

  • Hospitalisations 2014–24

    Hospitalisations decreased with age-standardised rates ranging from 2.5 in 2014–15 to 2.4 per 100,000 in 2023–24, with a low of 2.1 in 2021–22

  • Deaths 2013–23

    Death rates remained similar across the decade, being around 1 per 100,000 persons in both 2013–14 and 2022–23.

  • Drowning and submersion hospitalisations and deaths increased in summer during 2022–23:

    • Just under half (49%) of hospitalisations occurred in summer
    • Almost 2 in 5 (37%) deaths occurred in summer

Common types of drowning and submersion by location, age and sex

  • Swimming pools

    • 9.1% of hospitalisations were males aged 0–4 (crude rate of 7.0 per 100,000)
    • 7.6% of hospitalisations were females aged 0–4 (crude rate of 6.1 per 100,000)
    • 5.4% of hospitalisations were males aged 5–14 (crude rate of 1.9 per 100,000).

  • Natural water

    • 4.7% of hospitalisations were males aged 15–24 (crude rate of 1.6 per 100,000)
    • 3.9% of hospitalisations were males aged 45–64 (crude rate of 0.7 per 100,000)
    • 3.7% hospitalisations were males aged 25–44 (crude rate of 0.6 per 100,000).

  • Bathtub

    • 13 hospitalisations were females aged 0–4 (crude rate of 1.8 per 100,000)
    • 12 hospitalisations were males aged 0–4 (crude rate of 1.6 per 100,000).

Place and activity of occurrence

These figures should be used with caution as 5.6% of place of occurrence records and 34% of activity records were missing for drowning and submersion-related hospitalisations. 

  • Place

    Beaches and bodies of water was the most commonly specified place of occurrence (51%)

  • Activity

    Sport was the most commonly specified activity undertaken when injured (38%)

Severity

Drowning and submersion injuries in 2023–24 were severe, when compared to all injuries, and the proportion of cases with time:

  • in an intensive care unit (ICU) was higher by 9.4 percentage points
  • on a ventilator was higher by 7.2 percentage points.

In hospital deaths (per 1,000 cases) were also almost 6 times higher than all injuries.

Table 1: Severity of drowning and submersion injury hospitalisations, 2022–23
Severity measureDrowning and submersion injuriesAll injuries
Average number of days in hospital2.53.5
Percentage of cases with time in an ICU (%)11.52.1
Percentage of cases with time on ventilator (%)8.41.2
In-hospital deaths (per 1,000 cases)33.85.9

Notes

  1. Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions that are transfers from one hospital to another or transfers from one admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.
  2. All injuries includes drowning injuries in the total calculations.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see supplementary data tables.

First Nations people

  • Drowning and submersion injury hospitalisations 2022–23

    • 42 hospitalisations were First Nations people (crude rate of 4.1 per 100,000)
    • males were 1.2 times as likely as females to be hospitalised (crude rates of 4.5 and 3.7 per 100,000 population)
    • rates were highest among children aged 0–4

  • Drowning and submersion injury deaths 2022–23

    • 13 deaths were First Nations people (crude rate of 1.4 per 100,000)
    • about 9 in 10 (12) deaths were male

State and territory

  • 3.7 2.3 1.9 Qld NSW WA

    Hospitalisations 2023–24

    The highest rates of drowning and submersion injury hospitalisations in 2023–24 were in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. 

  • 1.3 1.0 0.9 Qld NSW WA

    Deaths 2022–23

    The highest rates of death by drowning and submersion in 2022–23 were in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. 

Note: Rates are age-standardised and presented per 100,000 population

Remoteness

In 2023–24, for hospitalisations due to drowning and submersion:

  • people living in Outer regional areas had the highest rate of hospitalisations (age-standardised rate of 3.1 per 100,000).

  • people living in Inner regional areas had the lowest rate of hospitalisation (age-standardised rate of 2.1 per 100,000).

     

Note: Rates for Remote and Very remote areas are not reported due to small numbers.

Socioeconomic areas

  • 2.7 2.1 Most disad. Least disad.

    Hospitalisations 2023–24

    Drowning hospitalisations were 1.3 times as likely to occur in the most disadvantaged areas when compared to the least disadvantaged areas.

     

  • 1.2 0.9 Most disad. Least disad.

    Deaths 2022–23

    Drowning and submersion deaths were 1.3 times as likely to occur in the most disadvantaged areas when compared to the least disadvantaged areas.

Note: Rates are age-standardised and presented per 100,000 population.

Data details

< causes of Injury