Children ages 5 to 14 most often drown in swimming pools and open-water sites. Nearly 300 children, mostly between the ages of 7 and 15 months and from 24 to 31 inches tall, have drowned in buckets containing water or other liquids used for mopping floors and other household chores since 1985. The majority of children who drown in swimming pools were last seen in the home, had been missing from sight for less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning. AT RISK Children ages 4 and under have the highest drowning death rate, a rate two to three times greater than other age groups, and account for nearly 60 percent of home drownings. These drownings typically occur in swimming pools and bathtubs.
Male children have a drowning rate two to four times that of female children.
However, females have a bathtub drowning rate twice the rate of males. In general, black children ages 14 and younger have a drowning death rate that is two times greater than that of white children. However, white children ages 1 to 4 have a drowning death rate that is twice that of black children, primarily from residential swimming pools. Low-income children drown more frequently in lakes or rivers.