Article
A Drowning Risk We Do Not Talk About Enough: Overseas-Born Australians
New analysis from Aquatots shows that overseas-born Australians are at a higher risk of drowning. With National Water Safety Day on December 1, 2025, we need to ask: Are we reaching the communities at the highest risk?
Key findings
- Over the last
20 years, people born overseas have often made up a
bigger share of drowning deaths than their share of the population. In the late 2010s, they were about
30% of the population but up to
40% of drowning deaths.
- In the five years before COVID
(2015-16 to 2019-20), overseas-born Australians drowned at a rate about
25% higher than the overall population. This occurred while the national drowning rate improved. It suggests that overseas-born communities did not benefit as much as those born in Australia.
- From
2005-06 to 2023-24, there were
1,627 drowning deaths among people born overseas - over
30% of all drowning deaths in that period.
- From 2013-14 to 2022-23, the average annual drowning rate was 1.04 deaths per 100,000 for Australian-born residents. For overseas-born residents, it was 1.30. For Nepal-born people, it was 2.48, and for China-born people, it was 1.98.
Australia loves water, but not everyone is equally safe. Our analysis of 20 years of drowning data shows a clear pattern. People born overseas are often carrying more than their share of the grief.
Chart 1
Chart 1 shows how the picture has changed over time.
In the mid-2000s, overseas-born residents were about a quarter of the population. They were also about a quarter of drowning deaths.
Over time, that changed. By the late 2010s, people born overseas made up roughly 30% of Australia’s population. But in some years, they accounted for around 40% of drowning deaths.
A five-year bracket analysis highlights this shift (2024-25 excluded, overseas-born drowning data is provisional):
- 2005-06 to 2009-10: overseas-born people were about 27% of drowning deaths.
- 2010-11 to 2014-15: overseas-born people’s share rose to about 29%.
- 2015-16 to 2019-20: it jumped to over 36%, more than one in three deaths.
- 2020-21 to 2023-24: the share sits at about 29%.
This raises an important question. Is this simply due to the growth of the overseas-born population, or are overseas-born Australians actually less safe in the water?
To answer this question, we look at deaths per 100,000 people per year, the crude annual drowning rate. For much of the last 20 years, the rate for people born overseas has sat above the rate for the population as a whole (see chart 2).
Chart 2
In the five years before COVID (2015–16 to 2019–20), the drowning rate for overseas-born Australians was about 25% higher than the national average. In some of those years, the ‘extra risk’ climbed close to 40%.
For most of the period, the risk ratio (shown by the yellow dashed line in Chart 2) is at or above 1.0. This means overseas-born Australians were as likely, and often more likely, to drown than the average Australian.
Since COVID, the two lines have moved closer together. Overall drowning has gone up, and the gap between overseas-born and Australian-born has narrowed. But the long-term story is clear; for many years, overseas-born Australians - including many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities were more likely to die once they entered the water.
The CALD communities cover many different communities. We focused on three large migrant communities: people born in China, India, and Nepal.
In 2005, the Nepal-born population in Australia was about 3,800. By 2024, it was around 197,800, more than 50 times larger. Over the same period, the India-born population grew by more than fivefold, and the China-born population by more than threefold.
We used ten years of Royal Life Saving National Fatal Drowning Database Dashboard data (2013-14 to 2022-23) and population figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We calculated average annual drowning rates per 100,000 people and compared different groups (see chart 3).
Chart 3
Two things stand out from chart 3:
- People born in Nepal and China seem to have a higher risk of drowning. This risk is greater than the average for those born overseas and for the Australian-born population.
- People born in India have a lower crude rate, but India and Nepal together still account for around seven drowning deaths a year on average.
Across this time period
(2013-14 to 2022-23), there were
933 drowning deaths
among people born overseas.
181
of these involved people born in
China, India, or Nepal, almost one in five overseas-born drowning deaths.
What this means for a drowning-free Australia
This study doesn’t explain all the reasons for the numbers. But it clearly shows that if Australia aims to reduce drowning deaths by half, CALD communities need to be included.
We know that overseas-born Australians face a higher drowning risk, it's time for specific action:
- Make swimming lessons more affordable and culturally safe.
- Offer water safety information in multiple languages.
- Listen to CALD communities about the barriers they face and the support they need.
Recognizing these patterns and admitting the gaps is the first step to real progress. It’s key to a drowning-free nation where no family is left behind.
Methodology & Data Notes
Data Sources
- NATIONAL DROWNING REPORT, Royal Life Saving Australia, several years
- Royal Life Saving National Fatal Drowning Database Dashboard
- 34090DO001_2024 Australia's population by country of birth 2024, Estimated resident population by country of birth - as at 30 June, 1996 to 2024, Released at 11:30 am (Canberra time) 30 April 2025, Australian Bureau of Statistics
- A 10 YEAR NATIONAL STUDY OF OVERSEAS BORN DROWNING DEATHS, 2005/06 to 2014/15, Royal Life Saving Australia
- Drowning Among Multicultural Communities in Australia, AN UPDATE: 2013/14 TO 2022/23, Royal Life Saving Australia
Formula
- Crude drowning rate
(raw death count in the year/population of the year) * 100,000
- Risk Ratio
Overseas-born drowning rate/Australian-born drowning rate
A value above 1 means overseas-born Australians face higher drowning risk.
Note
- 'Overseas-born' is not the same as 'CALD', our analysis focuses on country of birth
- We used the Royal Life Saving National Fatal Drowning Database Dashboard to analyse the annual total drowning death counts. The dashboard reports 316 deaths for the 2023-24 period. National Drowning Report 2024, Royal Life Saving Australia shows 323. The difference does not affect any trend or conclusion in the analysis.
Using our work
Aquatots Research & Data Team's work is meant to be shared and used widely. You do not need to seek our permission to reuse our article, charts, data, you just need to provide credit - http://www.aquatots.com.au/a-drowning-risk-we-do-not-talk-about-enough:-overseas-born-australians
About Aquatots
Engagement at a Sharks level
One of our philosophies here at Aqautots is swimming for life and we want your swimmer to have a life long love of the water. Swimming can be a long journey for some swimmers as everyone learns at different rates so we want to keep your child interested and excited about coming swimming for as many years as it takes to confidently say they are safe in the water. Here are a few tips to help with this:
1. Ask your child what they are working in there lessons. If they are finding a skill difficult, find out how you can help them to succeed with that particular skill. It may be more swimming time, booking them into a holiday program so they have more opportunities to practice that skill or giving them the time to talk through the skill with either yourself, the instructor or the on deck supervisor (our on deck supervisors have many years of teaching experience behind them) who will have some tips for your swimmer to help them achieve their goals.
2. Your interest in your child's swimming will also help keep them motivated to come back to the pool every week. Your encouragement means a lot to them so while it's great to have that swimming time to catch up on your emails or doing a spot of online shopping (we all love that!) take the time to watch your child's swimming lessons so you have an idea of what there learning and how they are feeling about it. Children can get disheartened and frustrated when they seem stuck on a particular skills so keep the communication open with your child and if your not sure how to deal with the situation please don't hesitate to ask for advice from your on deck supervisor. We want your child to be succeeding at swimming so we're always here to help.
3. We want you and your swimmer to have a good experience with us at Aquatots so a few things may need to be factored into this to keep swimming exciting and fun. The first is making sure your child is enjoying the lesson. This may be because they really like the instructor who is taking that class or they may have made friends with some children in the class or that time and day is best for them because they are fresh at this time. If these factors makes your child happy and wanting to come to swimming each week then factor this into your decisions when you change your child's booking to a different time, day or pool. If you change and they are not happy you may find it difficult to get back into that class with the same swimmers and instructor which may see your swimmer loose interest.
4. Always stay positive about the swimming experience. The best outcome for our whole swim school is that everyone is happy and working towards a common goal of learning how to swim. By having a positive and challenging environment to do this in everyone can blossom to his or her full potential. We ask that you help us to gain this type of environment by letting us know if we can help you or your swimmer in any way.
5. If your child is struggling with gaining technique at this level it is a great time to look at their swim wear. Long board shorts, rash shirts and suits will drag in the water and restrict movements required for technical swimming. In squad levels children are expected to wear regular swim wear for their training sessions so starting earlier in Sharks levels will prepare them and make gaining technical strokes easier for your child.
6. Ensure you give them a chance to see what their swimming skills can do for them. Encourage participation in water sports and swimming carnivals. Most kids at this level will surprise themselves with their swimming ability compared to others around the same age. Watch professional water sports or mini clips on swimming technique so kids can get a visual on what is required, how to get there and what the outcome of them gaining the skills can lead to.
