In my opinion, yes. Otherwise, lifeguards, from one point of view, would have no reason of existence.

In addition, it has been reported that an AI system is learning to recognise the panicky movements people make when they are drowning. The idea is that the system could one day be used to save children’s lives when there are no lifeguards around.

More specifically, ultrasonic systems at swimming pools can alert lifeguards if someone is underwater too long – but few pools have them and they are no help at unguarded river banks and beaches. So Ken Sakamura and colleagues at the University of Tokyo created an AI system which could, for example, activate a body-worn flotation bag in an emergency (AI ‘lifeguard’ could save young swimmers from drowning by Paul Marks at https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21728985-700-ai-lifeguard-could-save-young-swimmers-from-drowning/).

Regards

Actually i  agree with you in there is a few of studys or data we can know if swimming saves more lives than it loses, but we usyaly read about there is accident happen and all of people died except one or two because they can swim so they able to save their lives so we tend to say that the ability to swim helps to save lives

Best regards,

Mohamed

From Daily Telegraph June 13 2015 p14;

"A young City trader deemed a rising star died while swimming during a sailing holiday...

had a first class honours degree in business...

had been drinking alcohol.."

Obviously alcohol is a major factor here, but would he have gone into the water if he was a non-swimmer?

A gifted student and rugby star drowned on a school trip to Canada during a supervised swimming session (Evening Standard July 14 p5).  The exact cause of death is not yet known, but clearly if he had not been able to swim he would still be alive.   There are many similar cases reported all the time in the press.  Obviously, there are times where being able to swim saved a life, but the question is, when all these are added up, do they still outweigh the many cases of accidental death while swimming? 

From London Metro Dec 14 2015:

"Charlotte ..was a 'confident' swimmer. But Katie, 27, added: "Even the best swimmer in the Thames at this time of year, with the current conditions and the cold, I don't see many people standing a chance without a life jacket.  "We don't know exactly what happened. If she was wearing a life jacket there is a chance she could still be here".." 

And had she been a non-swimmer, she would surely have been more likely to have not gone on the speedboat trip or to have worn a life-jacket.  Many recreational swimmers drown in the Thames in summer months.

"Captain Matthew Webb.. was the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids. On 25 August 1875, he swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours.

Early life and career

He was born at Dawley in Shropshire, one of twelve children of a Coalbrookdale doctor. He acquired his ability to swim in the River Severn...

Whilst serving as second mate on the Cunard Line ship Russia, travelling from New York to Liverpool, he attempted to rescue a man overboard by diving into the sea in the mid-Atlantic. The man was never found, but Webb's daring won him an award of £100 and the Stanhope Medal, and made him a hero of the British press.  In the summer of 1863, while at home, he rescued his 12-year-old brother Thomas from drowning in the Severn near Ironbridge....

Death

His final stunt was to be a dangerous swim through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls, a feat many observers considered suicidal... Accounts of the time indicate that in all likelihood Webb successfully survived the first part of the swim, but died in the section of the river located near the entrance to the whirlpool."  (From Wikipedia)

**************************************************************************

Had Webb not been able to swim, he would not have recklessly jumped overboard on a hopeless rescue attempt; would not have served as a role model for his younger brother which nearly cost both lives; would not have fatally pitted his skills against the Niagara.

From London Metro April 11 2016 p 27:

"Four fishermen on a boat which sank made it to their life raft but only one survived...But instead of staying in the life boat until help arrived, they made a swim for the shore and three of them perished... They saw the shore but, sadly, only one reached it"

Another angle on this would be to see this at population level: In Denmark swimming lessons are mandatory for one year around the third year of primary school so generally the population have at least one year of organised instructions on this.

This is claimed by different swimming organisations, union of lifeguards etc.  to result in that Denmark has a very low incidence of drownings compared to countries that do not do this. Obviously we still have some drownings related to being drunk while swimming.

"A British man drowned when he and friends went swimming in a lake during a party...had been drinking and that this contributed to his difficulties in the water" 

The Times Jan 3 2017 p 22

"By Yao Yao | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-03-27 15:53

  Students aiming to enter Tsinghua University this year had better be able to swim or be prepared to learn swimming and pass a swim test since the prestigious university will not grant bachelor's degrees if they cannot swim.

This September, would-be freshmen at Tsinghua University will have to take swimming courses if they fail a swimming test at the beginning of their university life, and they won't receive their degrees if they cannot swim before their graduation, in accordance with a message at a university staff meeting days ago, the Beijing Daily reported on Monday...

As to why the university is linking swimming ability with degrees, "as a requisite survival skill, swimming is beneficial for students in the long run, since swimming is helpful in improving students' endurance and doing less harm to joints and muscles as a water sport," said Liu Bo, head of the Division of Sports Science and Physical Education."

Comment

     No mention of any benefit in saving lives. 

"In the 1800s, swimming, which was then called “bathing,” became a widely popular recreational activity in the US.   Increased swimming also increased incidences of drowning. The 1900s witnessed nearly 9000 people drowning each year in the US."

mypoolsigns.com

Swming save life. And you can check the success in PRICISE and Anchal project findings. You will get in details here. I visited the project and it was fantastic one.

www.ciprb.org

I believe that it works good

In my opinion, yes. Otherwise, lifeguards, from one point of view, would have no reason of existence.

In addition, it has been reported that an AI system is learning to recognise the panicky movements people make when they are drowning. The idea is that the system could one day be used to save children’s lives when there are no lifeguards around.

More specifically, ultrasonic systems at swimming pools can alert lifeguards if someone is underwater too long – but few pools have them and they are no help at unguarded river banks and beaches. So Ken Sakamura and colleagues at the University of Tokyo created an AI system which could, for example, activate a body-worn flotation bag in an emergency (AI ‘lifeguard’ could save young swimmers from drowning by Paul Marks at https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21728985-700-ai-lifeguard-could-save-young-swimmers-from-drowning/).

Regards

From scientific view yes.

From practical and life view No.

Life has no rules

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death of children ages 1-14. About ten people die from unintentional drowning every day, and of these, two are children under the age of 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Drowning also has an impact on society. Incidences of drowning will cost society about billions for the next years. We also know there’s an easy way to help reduce tragic drowning incidences: Teach kids to swim. Research shows that if a child doesn’t learn to swim before the 3rd grade, they likely never will. Early swimming lessons are critical.

For more details about your question , please you can visit the following link

https://redcrosschat.org/2013/03/28/swimming-lessons-save-lives/

"In my opinion, yes. Otherwise, lifeguards, from one point of view, would have no reason of existence."

This is irrelevant, as noted in my original question.  Are more lives, in general and on average, saved by learning to swim than are lost by recklessness?

"For more details about your question , please you can visit the following link

https://redcrosschat.org/2013/03/28/swimming-lessons-save-lives/"

This link is unhelpful, as it is basically an ad with no references or evidence.  Swimming lessons may indeed save lives at times, but his has to be balanced against overconfidence leading to loss of life.

Dear Mr. Gordon,

Concerning your original question, I wrote, among others,  "In my opinion, yes. Otherwise, lifeguards, from one point of view, would have no reason of existence.".

Regarding my aforementioned statement, you wrote ''This is irrelevant, as noted in my original question. Are more lives, in general and on average, saved by learning to swim than are lost by recklessness?''.

It is obvious, from your pertinent response, that you did not understand mine. You could ask for a clarification before your response. Anyway, my statement is very relevant to the original question. Please bear in mind, from my point of view, that lifeguards, logically, have the ability to swim, that is, the learning to swim. Otherwise, ''lifeguards, from one point of view, would have no reason of existence'', as I wrote before. And this reason is to save lives.

Regards  

Does learning to swim save lives?

Generally knowing how to swim can save your own life as well as others.  However, whether can save lives or not in actual reality also depending on the following factors:

I have been trying to make the distinction between narrow specific situations where extreme skill reduces risk, and the broader picture where skill increases risk.  Here is an analogous situation:

"He had an accident on the Nuptse wall and died. It seems he slipped"...

Steck was preparing to climb Mount Everest using its West Ridge, a route which has been the cause of more deaths than successful ascents...

Veteran British mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington paid tribute to Steck, describing him as "one of the great climbers of all time". He said that Steck's reputation for speed climbing had not necessarily put him at greater risk.

"What kills most people is the objective dangers, going into an area where there is stone fall or the threat of avalanche," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"The longer you are exposed to that threat, statistically the more likelihood there is of you being hit by one of these things. Whereas if you are moving very fast you are exposed to that danger for a much shorter time.

"But the people who are climbing at the absolute limit, which he undoubtedly was, the death rate among the very best mountaineers is very high, particularly in the Himalayas."   

BBC News website Apr 30 2017

I read this below as showing that learning to swim is a strong risk factor for drowning:

"Daniel Hartmann · 19.88 · Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

I have only well documented Mediterranean experience. In Israel, the number one killer in the surf is the very low level (or even absence) of knowledge regarding surf hazards (primary - Rip Currents). Thus, swimmers (or even good swimmers) who do not know about rip currents, do not understand rip's behavior and do not know how to deal with them are subjected to those death traps. About 40 Israelis die every year due to drowning in rips."

From RG question Have you looked at drowning prevention?  Apr 30 2017

Dear All,

Concerning my two previous responses, I took into account the original question ''Does learning to swim save lives?'', before its replacement with the modified question ''Does learning to swim, on balance, save lives?'', by dear Mr. Gordon.

Regards

Yes I Grew with Dr. Aristidis.

Also I think it's not good to modify question after L these answers.

Sure if Change can affect the main goal of the question

Regards

"I think it's not good to modify question"

I agree in general, but on refection I thought my original question was poorly worded and hence subject to misinterpretation.  I have not recently modified the explanatory statement accompanying the question.

"Beaches were the location with the highest number

of drowning deaths in 2015/16 with 63 deaths (23%).

This is an increase of 16 deaths (or 34%) on the 10

year average.  Ocean / harbour locations and swimming

pools both recorded increases against the 10 year

average, with 53 (19%) people drowning in an ocean

or harbour and 45 (16%) drowning in swimming pools

in 2015/16 (Figure 9).

More than one quarter (26%) of people were swimming

and recreating immediately prior to drowning (74

deaths). A further 46 people (16%) were boating prior

to drowning, while 39 people (14%) fell into water."

RLS National Drowning Report 2016  (Australia)

Comment

    74 people died because they had learned to swim

Here is an example which at first sight supports the idea that swimming saves lives:

"It's vital for open-water survival and a form of physical endeavour, says DPM after wake of boy who drowned

Charmaine Ng [email protected]

Ng Wei Kai [email protected]

More needs to be done to ensure young people know how to swim and have the skills to survive in open water, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in the light of the death of a 12-year-old schoolboy who drowned off East Coast Park on Monday...

According to Suhaimi's uncle and eldest brother, the Secondary 1 student did not know how to swim. His former primary schoolmates said this was despite compulsory swimming lessons in Primary 3...

Mr Tharman, the MP for Taman Jurong ward in Jurong GRC, said Suhaimi was "probably not the only one" who did not know how to swim...

"Sometimes, in a group, when you're young, you feel safe and you assume nothing will go wrong. If you're on your own, you think twice. But in a group, people just jump in," he said.

 Even though all primary school pupils are required to take part in swimming programmes under the 2014 Physical Education syllabus, technical skills alone may not be enough when dealing with complex situations, such as swimming in the sea, said former national swimmer Ang Peng Wee.

"Issues like sudden changes of depth and strong currents can cause panic and shock when people are not aware of the possible dangers," said Mr Ang, who has 40 years of experience as a competitive swimmer and instructor. "The sea is quite unknown, especially our waters, which are not clear."

Straitstimes.com May 10

Comment

   I would argue that the pupils who could swim, and thought this made them safe, induced by social pressure a non-swimmer to fatally endanger himself.

   See also next response.

Here are further details of the above case, showing the two sides of my original question:

"She snapped a panoramic picture of the sea view from the breakwater that showed seven boys, including Suhaimi, swimming about 50m away from the shoreline.

At first, Ms Hajas thought the boys were simply playing as they were making noises. But when she heard more than one of them cry out for help, she leapt into the water.

Three of the boys swam back on their own, while the others looked like they were having trouble staying afloat, said Ms Hajas, an Australian national who has lived here for six years on a dependant's pass.

"I swam out to the closest boy and helped him to get out. And then I turned around and went out again to pull in another," she recalled, adding that she could not touch the ground where the boys were at. She is 1.7m tall. "I was very tired at this stage - the sea was very choppy and the waves were strong."

A couple arrived at the scene and found a rescue float nearby. The man, who was able to swim, dived into the water with Ms Hajas while his female partner called the police.

Said Ms Hajas: "By that time, the fourth boy was no longer above water. We swam and put the life buoy on one boy and pulled him out."

The police confirmed receiving a call about a missing person in the waters off Bedok Jetty at 12.24pm, roughly 10 minutes after Ms Hajas snapped her picture. By then, Ms Hajas had returned to shore with the third boy.

"We kept looking in the horizon and looking out for the fourth boy, but he never came back up and we never saw him again," she said.

Her daughter was being looked after by the three boys who had swum back to shore on their own.

Ms Hajas, who has taken part in triathlons, said the boys who got into trouble did not seem to know any swimming techniques and did not seem to be using their arms to tread water.

"They were just starting to play in the water when I first saw them and, five minutes later, they were much farther out, so I think the current pulled them out much farther than they expected," she said. "It took them completely by surprise.""

straitstimes.com May 9

Comment

   So, on the one hand 3 lives were saved by adult swimmers, and it was probably significant that one was an expert swimmer.

    Yet, on the other hand, the boys would not have been 50m offshore in dangerous waters had they not had the confidence, overblown as it turned out in the case of 4 of them, in their ability to swim ashore if they got into difficulty.

   The moral is that whilst swimming may rescue someone once they get into trouble, it also puts them into harm's way in the first place.  So my question is, does one consideration outweigh the other? 

   This report perfectly illustrates the risk-benefit balance for Swimming Ability.  Here we have two lives saved by swimmers, but one life lost:

"A leading French philosopher who agued that taking risks is essential to life has drowned while trying to rescue two children...Lifeguards raised the red flag to indicate that swimmers ought to return to shore. The children were saved by lifeguards."

The Times July 25 2017 p 35

Ability to swim is supposed to act as a protective factor against drowning, at least in narrow water fields or rivers. However knowing to swim may encourage people to swim even in dangerous situations where the risk of drowning may increase. People who do not master swimming skills may hesitate to swim and thus remain at lower risk of accidents. In theory having skills is not sufficient but wisdom to use these skills is also essential.

I am still waiting for some empirical data, or a risk/benefit analysis.

"Diving into cold water can be deadly – here’s how to survive it

June 27, 2019 11.57am BST

Author

Mike Tipton

Professor of human and applied Physiology, University of Portsmouth

[The Conversation UK]

Many will have read the news story about the sad death of Cameron Gosling who died from cold water shock after jumping into the River Wear on a hot summer’s day. Sadly, Cameron’s death is not an isolated case. About 400 people die annually in the UK as a result of being immersed in cold water – more than die from cycling accidents or fire. Most of the casualties are males under 30 years of age, and most are reported to be good swimmers.

In the 1980s, Frank Golden and I coined the term “cold shock” for the initial physiological responses evoked by being immersed in cold water."

(Highlight added)

It is safe to assume that these people would still be alive if they had been non-swimmers:

"Police are searching for three people after earlier finding body of man at a Gloucestershire water park

Press Association

Wed 24 Jul 2019 06.23 BST Last modified on Wed 24 Jul 2019 07.56 BST

Police are searching for three people who have gone missing in the river Thames.

The Metropolitan police said a swimmer went missing at Shadwell Basin on Tuesday evening, a second at Waterloo Bridge and a third near Kingston High Street.

Of the incident at Shadwell Basin, police said: “The man, believed to be aged 22 years, was swimming with friends and has not resurfaced...

It comes as parts of the UK are in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures across England exceeding 30 degrees on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, a body was found at a water park after reports that a swimmer had disappeared in a lake in Gloucestershire.

Emergency services were called to Cotswold water park, near Cirencester, at about 1.40pm on Tuesday following reports a swimmer had gone missing.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were at the site, with a National Police Air Service helicopter scrambled to help search for the swimmer.

Gloucestershire police said the body of a man was pulled from the water shortly before 8.50pm. He was pronounced dead at the scene and the coroner and the man’s next of kin have been informed, the force added."