Pool Safety Statistics Australia (2026)

In the 2024/25 financial year, Australia recorded 357 drowning deaths, the highest annual total since records began and 27% above the ten-year average, per Royal Life Saving Australia's National Drowning Report 2025 (published 26 August 2025). The prior year, 2023/24, recorded 323 deaths, 16% above the National Drowning Report 2024's own ten-year average. Research from the same organisation shows almost half of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 metres. Both trends are moving in the same direction: rising drowning deaths and falling swimming competency. This page compiles what is publicly verifiable from peer-reviewed and government-affiliated sources. See the methodology section for what was and was not accessible at this review.

Last reviewed August 2026. Headline FY2024/25 figures sourced directly from Surf Life Saving Australia's and the Australian Sports Commission Clearinghouse for Sport's coverage of Royal Life Saving Australia's National Drowning Report 2025. Direct access to royallifesaving.com.au, QBCC, and NSW Fair Trading pool register statistics remained unavailable at this review (see methodology). The next edition, the National Drowning Report 2026 covering FY2025/26, had not been published by this August 2026 review; Royal Life Saving Australia's most recent edition was released in late August, so a newer report may follow within weeks of this review.

Finding: record drowning deaths, declining swimming skills

Australia recorded 357 drowning deaths in the 2024/25 financial year, the highest annual total since records began and 27% above the ten-year average, according to Royal Life Saving Australia's National Drowning Report 2025. The prior year, 2023/24, recorded 323 deaths, 16% above the National Drowning Report 2024's ten-year average of 278 per year. Separately, a Royal Life Saving Society survey found almost half of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 metres and tread water for two minutes. These statistics come from two different studies by the same organisation, not a single combined data set, so the comparison should be read as indicative rather than directly causal. All figures below are Australia-wide.

A Royal Life Saving Society statement in early 2026 described the figures as "record drowning deaths in Australia," coinciding with 31% of Australian schools no longer offering formal swimming programs.

Annual drowning deaths in Australia

Source: Royal Life Saving Australia, National Drowning Report 2025 (FY2024/25 figures, cited via Surf Life Saving Australia and the Australian Sports Commission Clearinghouse for Sport) and National Drowning Report 2024 (FY2023/24 and 2018/19 figures, cited in The Conversation, December 2024). These figures exclude suicide-related drowning deaths; the Royal Life Saving methodology statement is explicit on this exclusion.

<img src="https://mypoolcert.com.au/images/infographics/drowning-deaths-record-high-australia.png" alt="Chart: Australia's drowning toll hit a record high, 357 deaths 2024/25, 27% above the ten-year average - My Pool Cert" width="580" height="380" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;" />
<p>Source: <a href="https://mypoolcert.com.au/stats/pool-safety-statistics-australia/">My Pool Cert</a></p>

Children and drowning risk

Children under 4 years are the highest-risk age group in Australia. In the 2018/19 financial year, 19 children under four drowned across Australia.

Children and teenagers also face a documented seasonal risk: their risk of drowning doubles during school holidays compared to term time. Kidsafe Australia notes that the majority of toddler drownings occur in the backyard swimming pool, which is the primary reason NSW and QLD require pool barriers to be inspected and certified before a property is sold or leased.

The most recent data point is more encouraging for the youngest group. Royal Life Saving Australia's National Drowning Report 2025 recorded 15 drowning deaths among children under five in 2024/25, 21% below the ten-year average for that age group, with half occurring in home swimming pools. It is a different age band and reporting year to the 2018/19 under-4 figure above, so the two should not be read as a direct before-and-after comparison.

Swimming competency and prevention

Pool barriers address structural risk at the point of entry. Swimming competency addresses risk in the water. Research from Royal Life Saving Society Australia and peer-reviewed sources points to a gap on both fronts.

The 88% risk reduction figure is from US research (Brenner et al., JAMA Pediatrics) cited in Australian drowning prevention literature. It applies to formal swimming lessons for children aged one to four, which overlaps directly with the highest-risk age group in Australia. Australian equivalents have not been separately published with a comparable single-figure summary.

Pool safety certificates and barrier compliance

NSW and QLD both require a pool barrier inspection certificate before a property with a pool can be sold or leased. The two states use different certificate names, different validity periods, and slightly different fence-height rules. The statutory requirement to certify before sale or lease is the direct policy response to the drowning risk data above.

Nationally, swimming pools accounted for 10% of Australia's 2024/25 drowning deaths (35 of 357), per the National Drowning Report 2025. That is the exact risk category pool barrier and certification rules exist to reduce.

See the full NSW vs QLD rule comparison: trigger events, certificate names, fence heights, validity periods, and CPR signage requirements

Use our free checker to find out whether a certificate is required for your specific property situation

What these statistics do not yet cover

This August 2026 refresh added Australia-wide pool-specific drowning data for 2024/25 (10% of all deaths, 35 total) from the National Drowning Report 2025. It still does not include a backyard-versus- other-pool-type split for that same year: the secondary source available at this review gives a 68% figure for this cohort, but its bulleted list is cut off before naming the pool type, so the split is left out rather than guessed at.

This page also does not include:

• QBCC pool safety inspection volumes or compliance rates (QBCC-specific pages returned HTTP 404 at this and the prior review).
• NSW Swimming Pool Register registration totals (the relevant NSW Fair Trading statistics page no longer exists; it now redirects to a generic NSW Government page with no pool register data).
• State-level drowning breakdowns (NSW, QLD, VIC, etc.) from primary sources.

These gaps will be addressed in a future update once direct primary-source access is restored, or once the missing figures are independently verifiable. Readers seeking the full pool-location breakdown can access the National Drowning Report directly at royallifesaving.com.au and QBCC pool safety data at qbcc.qld.gov.au.

Methodology and sources

Historical statistics on this page (2018/19 and 2023/24 death figures, swimming-competency figures) were compiled from secondary sources (The Conversation, Kidsafe Australia) that themselves cite Royal Life Saving Australia National Drowning Reports and peer-reviewed research. The FY2024/25 headline figures added at this August 2026 refresh were verified directly against Surf Life Saving Australia's and the Australian Sports Commission Clearinghouse for Sport's coverage of Royal Life Saving Australia's National Drowning Report 2025, fetched live at this review. All figures were verified against the linked secondary sources at the URLs and dates listed below. Direct access to royallifesaving.com.au was attempted again at this review and remains HTTP 403.

This is general information, not legal advice. My Pool Cert is an independent information resource, not a government body and not affiliated with Royal Life Saving Society Australia or any state regulator. Pool rules change: always confirm current requirements with NSW Fair Trading / NSW Swimming Pool Register (NSW) or the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QLD).