Drowning is rising in the United States for the first time in decades — and it remains one of the most preventable causes of death. Here's the national picture, who's most at risk, and what works. 2026 Edition.
Published July 2026 · Data years 2019–2023 · Compiled by WaterWiseKids from CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics sources. Reporters and educators are free to cite this report with attribution — see Cite this report.
For years, U.S. drowning deaths were slowly declining. That reversed. According to CDC Vital Signs data, drowning deaths rose from 4,067 in 2019 to 4,589 in 2020, 4,677 in 2021, and 4,509 in 2022 — annual death rates running roughly 9–14% above the 2019 baseline. Drowning now claims about 4,500 lives a year and remains a leading cause of unintentional-injury death.
U.S. drowning deaths per year, 2019–2022
Drowning risk is not evenly distributed. Children ages 1–4 carry the highest rate of any group — about 3.1 deaths per 100,000, up roughly 28% from 2019 — and drowning is their single leading cause of death. Risk climbs again for teens and young adults (the rate for ages 15–24 rose about 31% in 2020) and for older adults, with especially steep increases among those 65 and older.
By race and ethnicity, American Indian/Alaska Native people have the highest drowning death rates (about 2.6–3.1 per 100,000), followed by Black/African American people (about 1.5–1.9 per 100,000). Recent years brought the largest increases for Black Americans (up ~28% in 2021) and Hispanic Americans (up ~25% in 2022).
Source: CDC Vital Signs / MMWR, 2019–2023.
Behind the death rates sits a deeper story: millions of Americans never learn to swim, and the ability to do so splits sharply along racial and economic lines. Nationally, 15.4% of adults — about 40 million people — say they cannot swim, and 54.7% never took a single swimming lesson. But the burden is far from equal.
Black adults are more than five times as likely as White adults to be unable to swim (36.8% vs. 6.9%). Hispanic adults are nearly four times as likely (25.8%). The same groups facing the highest drowning death rates are the ones least likely to have ever had access to a pool or a lesson — the gap in safety mirrors the gap in access.
Share of adults who cannot swim, by race/ethnicity
Access underlies it: 67% of Black adults report no access to a swimming pool, and 74% report no access to other swimming water. When people can't get to the water safely to learn, the skill gap — and the drowning gap — persists across generations.
Source: CDC Vital Signs / MMWR, 2019–2023. The 2026 AAP drowning-prevention policy statement similarly highlights rising deaths and persistent racial and economic disparities in swimming access.
The hopeful part of the data: drowning is largely preventable, and the interventions are well-established. No single measure is enough on its own — safety comes from layers of protection stacked together.
Formal swimming lessons are associated with an estimated 88% lower risk of drowning among children ages 1–4. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports lessons for most children starting around age 1.
Four-sided isolation fencing that fully separates a pool from the house can cut a young child's drowning risk by roughly half. Door and pool alarms and removed or locked ladders on above-ground pools add further protection. See our state-by-state pool fence law guide.
Most young-child drownings happen during non-swim times, when a child reaches water unnoticed. Close, undistracted "touch supervision" within arm's reach — and a designated water watcher — closes that gap. Drowning is fast and silent; there is rarely splashing or shouting.
In open water, Coast Guard-approved life jackets — not toys or floaties — save lives, and knowing to swim parallel to shore in a current matters. Learning CPR improves survival when seconds count.
Sources: American Academy of Pediatrics; CDC; Brenner et al., formal swim-lesson case-control research.
This report synthesizes the most recent authoritative U.S. data available as of July 2026. Mortality figures and swimming-ability and access data are drawn from CDC Vital Signs and the associated MMWR surveillance report covering 2019–2023; prevention evidence is drawn from the American Academy of Pediatrics and peer-reviewed research. WaterWiseKids' "Swimming Access Gap" is calculated as the ratio of the share of Black adults unable to swim (36.8%) to the share of White adults unable to swim (6.9%). Figures are rounded for readability; exact values and years appear beside each statistic. This is the inaugural annual edition and will be updated as new CDC data is released.
Free to cite with attribution. Suggested citation:
WaterWiseKids. (2026). The State of Drowning Prevention in America — 2026. https://www.waterwisekids.com/statistics/state-of-drowning-prevention/
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