Each year, Royal Life Saving produces a WA Drowning Report which looks at all fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents recorded and provides detailed information on who, where, when and how people drowned in National and Western Australian waterways over the last financial year. The report provides a better understanding of the burden of drowning in Western Australia and identifies key water safety and drowning prevention priority areas for action.
Data is obtained from a number of sources including media stories, police reports and data from the WA Coroner’s office and cases are crosschecked with National data to ensure consistency. The most recent WA and National reports can be seen below.
National drowning report
- 276 people died as a result of drowning in Australia between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019. This is a 10% increase on the statistics from 2017-18. You can download the full report below.
Annual WA drowning report
Between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017 39 people drowned in Western Australia. Males were 6 times more likely to drown than females and people were 3.7 times more likely to drown in regional WA than in the Perth Metropolitan Area.
10 year analysis drowning reports
Research is currently being undertaken to analyse drowning data in Western Australia across a ten year period. A 10 year analysis of drowning in toddlers aged 0-4 years in Western Australia can be viewed below.