Child drowning deaths – 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2024

This summary report aims to describe the number and characteristics of child drowning deaths notified to Child Death Overview Panels in England, based on the latest available data from the NCMD. It builds on the findings of the NCMD thematic report Deaths of children and young people due to traumatic incidents and reinforces the recommendations made.

In the year ending 31 March 2024, there were a further 40 child (0–17 years) drowning deaths notified to Child Death Overview Panels in England (Figure 1). This represents a death rate of 3.40 per 1,000,000 population and is double the rate reported in the year ending 31 March 2020 (1.70 per 1,000,000 population), the first year of NCMD data collection.

Across the five years from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2024, the total number of drowning deaths was 165, representing a death rate of 2.80 per 1,000,000 population per year.

Figure 1: Number of child (0-17 years) deaths due to drowning 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2024

Other key findings

In total, there were 50 drownings of female children, and 115 drownings of male children reported. This represented a death rate of 1.74 per 1,000,000 for female children and 3.81 per 1,000,000 per year for male children.
Children aged under 5 and those aged 13-17 years were most at risk of drowning, with a death rate of 4.10 and 4.51 per 1,000,000 population respectively.
Death rates differed across regions with the North West having the highest drowning rate of 3.97 per 1,000,000 population per year, and East of England having the lowest (1.80 per 1,000,000 population per year).
The risk of drowning was almost twice as high for children living in the most deprived areas (3.76 per 1,000,000 per year) compared to the least deprived (1.92 per 1,000,000 per year).
Children of black ethnicity were at three times higher risk of drowning than children of white ethnicity (7.45 per 1,000,000 per year compared to 2.39 per 1,000,000 per year).
78 children (47%) drowned inland (in places such as rivers and lakes), whilst 42 children drowned in the bath (25%).
20 children (12%) from England drowned abroad during the five-year period, 13 of which drowned in a swimming pool.
Where it was recorded, 132 (89%) of child drownings occurred in the absence of adult supervision.
Of 12 infants (children aged under 1 year) that drowned in the bath in the last 5 years, 8 (67%) were using a bath seat.

The NCMD programme wish to acknowledge that the death of each child is a devastating loss that profoundly affects bereaved parents as well as siblings, grandparents, extended family members, friends and professionals. They also wish to thank all the families who shared their data and experiences, and the Child Death Overview Panels who submit detailed evidence on every death to the database.

Methodology and limitations

Cohort identification

Deaths of children aged 0-17 years that occurred between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2024 and notified to NCMD were identified, where they were categorised as drowning using information recorded at notification.

At the time of extraction, 74% of the cases had been reviewed by a CDOP.

Drowning definition

Deaths where drowning was suspected or confirmed to be the cause of death at the point of notification. This is defined as where two or more clinicians coded the death as by drowning, based on information recorded within the notification form.

The definition includes deaths across a range of locations, including in residential settings e.g., baths, hot tubs, ponds (domestic), private swimming or paddling pool, those in public swimming pools, as well as those in open water e.g. sea, lake, quarry, reservoir, river, harbour, or canal. This would also include deaths of children normally resident in England, where the drowning occurred outside of England.

Data extraction

The data extract used for deaths that occurred between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2024 within this report was extracted on 4 February 2025. Following extraction, the data was validated throughout February and March 2025 before further analysis. This included a review of previous cases to assess where further data may have become available. In a limited number of cases, this may result in some differences to previously reported data, for example in relation to the presence of adult supervision.

Population estimates data

To calculate drowning rates, the ONS mid-year population estimates in 2021 for 0 – 17-year-olds were used as denominators. The data sources are reported under each table. The rate is presented per 1,000,000 children per year.

Limitations

This publication had limitations. This work is based on statutory data reported to NCMD, and previous work has shown good validation and coverage. However, whilst 74% of deaths had been reviewed by a CDOP, the reviews of the remaining deaths had not concluded, meaning that in some cases information was limited, such as supervision, which should be considered when interpreting this work.

The suspected category of death used to identify the deaths in this work is provisional, based on information available at 48 hours, and final underlying cause of death assigned by the CDOP may differ in some cases. Similarly, to ensure consistency across the whole period, this work did not include deaths where the final underlying cause of death assigned by the CDOP was drowning, but was not identified as drowning at notification, though this number is expected to be small.

The main limitation of this work is likely to be the precision of the estimates, with childhood death by drowning a rare event, small numbers make interpretation difficult.

Acknowledgements

The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and funded by NHS England as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme.

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