City of Columbus

Drowning Statistics

• On average, 363 children younger than 15 fatally drown annually.
  
  
• Seventy-four percent of deaths from drowning or water related injury involved children younger than 5 years old.
  
  
• Drowning remains in the top 5 causes of unintentional injury related death from birth to 54 years old.
  
  
• While recent national data from the USA Swimming Foundation show a 5-10 percent increase in swimming abilities among young people, children in minority communities continue to have disproportionately no/low swimming ability.
  
  
• Research shows that 64 percent of African American children and 45 percent of Hispanic children have no/low swimming ability, and are 5.5x more likely to drown in a pool than white children of the same age.
  
  
• Male children younger than 15 had twice as many fatal drownings as female children of the same age.
  
  
• Drowning is silent, and can happen in 20-60 seconds.