Unintentional deaths - Drowning

See note on drowning recording below. Note also that the following statistical analysis of differences based on direct age-standardised rates may not be robust given the relatively small number of deaths recorded in each region per year.

Deaths due to drowning 2003 (Northern Ireland 2002):

There were 283 unintentional deaths due to drowning in Britain and Ireland in 2003, split as follows:

The Republic of Ireland (1.1 per 100,000), Northern Ireland (0.8) and Wales (0.7) had significantly higher age-standardised mortality rates compared to the England average (0.4). Scotland’s rate was identical to England.

Deaths due to drowning 1996 to 2003 (to 2002 in Northern Ireland):

The number of unintentional deaths due to drowning in Britain and Ireland decreased by 16% from 1996 (336 deaths) to 2003. However, given the relatively small numbers of deaths recorded, particular year on year fluctuations can be observed.

The Republic of Ireland consistently had the highest age-standardised mortality rate between 1996 and 2003, but also observed a significant reduction (-48%) over this time period. The Yorkshire and the Humber rate also significantly decreased (-61%). There was no statistically significant difference in rates between the two years in the remaining regions.

Note on drowning coding:

The ONS paper ‘Trends in injury and poisoning mortality using the ICE on injury statistics matrix, England and Wales, 1979-2004’ available at www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/hsq/hsq32-injury&poisoning.pdf references previous research on page 6 which highlighted that the “apparently very low rate of accidental drowning in England and Wales compared to other ICE participant countries is largely an artefact due to a much larger proportion of the drowning deaths being coded as suicide and particularly as ‘undetermined intent’. The latter reflects coroners’ ‘open’ verdicts where there is no evidence of intent. In many countries such deaths are assumed to be accidental.”