Each year, Royal Life Saving produces Drowning Reports which review fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents and provide 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
294 people died as a result of drowning in Australia between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. This is a 20% increase on the statistics from 2019-2020. 33 people drowned in Western Australia, a 22% increase on the previous year. You can download the full report below.
WA Drowning Report
The 2021 Drowning Report highlights key drowning trends in WA from July 2020 to June 2021 and identifies those at most risk. Translating this into policy and practice assists the Society with leading efforts to understand drowning and its impacts, build evidence-informed, innovative solutions to prevent drowning and empower the community to adopt safer aquatic behaviours.
301 Western Australians were affected by drowning (both fatal and non-fatal) in 2020/21 at a rate of 11.3 per 100,000 population. Of these 39 were fatal, 120 were admitted to hospital and 142 presented at an emergency department in the Perth metropolitan area.
Previous Annual WA Drowning Reports
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.