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
281 people died as a result of drowning in Australia between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. 31 people drowned in Western Australia, a 17% reduction on the previous year. You can download the full report below.
WA Drowning Report
The 2022 Drowning Report highlights key drowning trends in WA from July 2021 to June 2022 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.
266 Western Australians were affected by drowning (both fatal and non-fatal) in 2021/22 at a rate of 9.6 per 100,000 population. Of these 37 were fatal, 115 were admitted to hospital and 114 presented at an emergency department in the Perth metropolitan area.
Previous Annual WA Drowning Reports
10 year analysis drowning reports
Summaries of drowning data across population groups, locations and activities are also available. More recent summaries can be found in the WA Drowning Reports above.