Fewer drownings last year; Immigrants most at risk

Last year, 80 Netherlands residents drowned in open water or in or around the house. That is 27 fewer than a year earlier, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. People who moved to the Netherlands and their children born here are at higher risk of drowning, the stats office said.

For young non-European immigrants under the age of 20, the risk of drowning is 9 to 10 times higher than among young people born in the Netherlands. But the risk of drowning is also higher for the young children (10 or younger) of first-generation non-European immigrants who were born in the Netherlands.

Adult immigrants from outside the EU are also more likely to drown than people born and raised in the Netherlands, but the difference is smaller than among young people. The differences are also generally small among European immigrants.

The 80 residents died from accidental drownings. Over the past decade, 73 percent of accidental drownings happened in open water like a ditch, river, canal, lake, or sea. 21 percent occurred in and around the house.

In addition to accidental drownings, people die in the water every year due to a traffic accident or suicide. In 2021, another 38 people drowned after a traffic accident, and 86 people took their own lives in this way. The number of suicides by drowning decreased slightly, and the number of drownings in traffic accidents remained about the same.

For all causes of drowning, there are more male victims than female victims, and people over the age of 60 are overrepresented.

Between 2012 and 2021, 394 people who were not residents of the Netherlands, like tourists or migrant workers, also drowned in the country. Of these, 220 were accidental, 92 were suicide, and 48 were the result of a transport accident.