Inland Water Safety : Facts and Figures

Drowning Trends in Inland Waters
The table below, compiled from RoSPA’s annual publication ‘Drowning Statistics in the UK’ sets out the total number of deaths by drowning over a ten year period and illustrates the numbers occurring at different inland water sites each year.

Year	Total	Rivers, Streams	Lakes, Reservoirs	Canals	All Inland	As a % of the total
1993	384	147	40	29	216	56
1994	448	167	76	26	269	60
1995	473	151	73	35	259	55
1996	441	143	69	31	243	55
1997	440	133	78	34	245	56
1998	568	239	55	47	341	60
1999	569	248	84	43	375	66
2000	448	199	51	44	294	66
2001	430	173	52	53	278	65
2002	427	167	50	34	251	59
2003*	381	144	55	30	229	60
Average	455	174	62	37	273	60

* 2003 Totals may still be subject to change

Drowning in rivers and streams on average accounts for 40% of the total deaths by drowning and are the areas where most drownings occur. As a comparison deaths in coastal waters are on average 22% of the total.

Incidents at Inland Water Sites
A system has been developed by RoSPA and the RNLI, with valuable assistance from many other organisations, to provide a central point for incident data for inland waters to be collected in a standard format. The system, known as INREM, allows statistical information to be obtained and used to promote water safety. Further details can be found in the information group section. The collection of data about inland incidents using the INREM database began in January 2004.