Drownings in Ireland: yearly totals and county rates

Yearly totals, 2007 to 2025

Water Safety Ireland collates its counts from the Irish Coast Guard, An Garda Síochána, coroners' courts and media reports, and updates them as reports arrive. The long-run table shows a clear fall from 173 in 2007 to 100 in 2022, a rise to 129 in 2023, and 78 provisionally in 2024. The 2025 figure of 80 is also provisional. Single-year moves should be read with care.

A caution on the source. Water Safety Ireland publishes more than one table, and the totals for 2020 to 2022 in its sex and classification table differ from those in the long-run table above (for example 121 against 102 for 2021). It does not explain the gap on the page. We use the long-run table, and you should check the original before quoting a single year.

County rates, 2019 to 2023

The table gives each county's average number of drownings a year over the five years and the rate per 100,000 residents. Water Safety Ireland calculates it from Central Statistics Office tables and Census 2022 populations. Because rates depend on population, a small county can look high from only a few cases. The three highest rates are Roscommon (5.1), Mayo (4.7), Donegal (4.5). The national rate is 2.4.

For 2024 (provisional) Water Safety Ireland reports a rate of 1.6 drownings per 100,000 residents in coastal counties against 0.9 in inland counties. For 2025 it gives these provincial figures.

What the numbers say about swimming

Swimming is a smaller share of the picture than many people assume. For 2018 to 2022, Water Safety Ireland puts accidental drownings at 351, of which 235 (67%) followed land-based activities such as walking, hiking, angling from the shore, cycling or driving, and 78 (22%) followed swimming, bathing or other water activity without a boat. In 2023, 45 of 95 accidental drownings were swimming or bathing.

In its five-year data the organisation also reports that about seven in ten of those who drowned were male, that people in their 40s, 50s and 60s were the largest group, and that July and August were the most dangerous months, with 43% of accidental drownings falling between June and August. None of this tells you how risky a particular swim is. Cold water, tides and group size matter more for that, and our guides on cold water shock and tides and currents cover them.

What lifeguards record

Water Safety Ireland also publishes the work of its seasonal lifeguards. In 2025 they recorded 316 rescues and 6,209 first aid cases, up from 202 and 5,129 in 2024.

Lifeguards work mainly in the summer at supervised beaches. Most of the year, and at most places people swim in winter, nobody is on duty. See swim conditions by beach for the lifeguard details the EPA lists for each bathing water, and bathing water quality by county for the water quality picture.

Frequently asked questions