Swimming Pool Accident Statistics

Drowning statistics

• Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental injury-related death among children ages 1 to 14.
• Drowning is the leading cause of accidental injury-related death among children ages 1 to 4.
• In 2003, nearly 4,200 children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for accidental drowning-related incidents.
• Male children have a drowning rate more than two times that of female children. However, females having a bathtub drowning rate twice that of males.
• In 2003, males accounted for 80 percent of people who drowned in the U.S.
• Nine of 10 drowning-related deaths occurred while a child was being supervised.
• More than half of drownings among infants (under age 1) occur in bathtubs, buckets or toilets.
• Among children ages 1 to 4 years, most drownings occur in residential swimming pools.
• Four-sided fencing that isolates the pool from the house and the yard has shown to decrease the number of drowning injuries anywhere from 50 to 90 percent.
• Alcohol use is involved in 25-50 percent of adolescent and adult deaths associated with water recreation.Medical costs for a near-drowning victim aged 14 and under can cost more than $8,000 for initial hospital treatment to over $250,000 a year for long-term care. If the injury resulted in brain damage, the cost could rise over $5.5 million, including medical, work loss and quality of life costs.