Bathtub statistics are best understood through several measures rather than a single ownership total. The available U.S. evidence describes bathroom injuries, tub-or-shower events, historical household water use, bathing frequency and drowning mortality, with populations, periods and definitions kept explicit below.
Key Bathtub Statistics
The most broadly useful figures are:
- 234,094 estimated nonfatal bathroom injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments among people aged 15 or older in 2008.
- 96.4 bathroom injuries per 100,000 people aged 15 or older were estimated in the United States in 2008.
- 64.3% of estimated bathroom injuries involved women in the United States in 2008.
- 515.3 bathroom injuries per 100,000 people were estimated among U.S. adults aged 85 and older in 2008.
- 159,818 weighted tub-or-shower injuries represented 68.3% of U.S. bathroom injuries among people aged 15 or older in 2008.
- 200.2 tub-or-shower injuries per 100,000 people were estimated among U.S. adults aged 85 and older in 2008.
- 81.1% of nonfatal bathroom injuries were caused by falls in the United States in 2008.
- 31.2% of bathroom injuries affected the head or neck among U.S. people aged 15 or older in 2008.
- 84.9% of bathroom-injury patients were treated and released from U.S. emergency departments in 2008.
- 27.5% of bathroom injuries involved bathing or showering as the precipitating event in the United States in 2008.
- 9.8% of bathroom injuries occurred while getting out of a tub or shower in the United States in 2008.
- 63% of U.S. homes used bathtub mats or nonskid strips in a 2004 survey cited by the CDC.
- 20 to 30 gallons per use was the tub-bathing water range reported in the EPA’s historical literature review.
- 2.2 to 3.3 bathing events per week was the reported historical frequency range in cited household studies.
- 46,419 unintentional drowning deaths occurred in the United States from 1999 through 2010.
- 9.7% of unintentional drowning deaths involved bathtubs in the United States from 1999 through 2010.
- Approximately 62% of unintentional drowning deaths among U.S. infants under 1 involved bathtubs from 1999 through 2010.
Contents
- U.S. bathroom injury scale and rates
- Bathtub and shower injury patterns by age and sex
- Injury causes, diagnoses and body parts
- Bathtub safety data and bathing-related events
- Bathtub water-use statistics and bathing frequency
- Bathtub drowning statistics across ages and locations
Bathtub Statistics: U.S. Bathroom Injury Scale and Rates
The CDC’s report, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008, analyzed 3,339 cases from a nationally representative sample of 62 emergency departments and produced weighted national estimates. These are bathroom-wide figures, not a national count of bathtub users or bathtub-only injuries.
- The estimated total was 234,094 unintentional, nonfatal bathroom injuries among U.S. people aged 15 or older in 2008, at an overall rate of 96.4 per 100,000.
- Women accounted for 150,605 weighted injuries, or 64.3% of the total, while men accounted for 83,489, or 35.7%.
- The estimated rate was 121.2 per 100,000 for women and 70.4 per 100,000 for men; the CDC reported the female rate as 72% higher.
- The bathroom-injury rate rose from 58.8 per 100,000 at ages 15–24 to 515.3 per 100,000 at ages 85 and older.
Source: CDC, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008. The estimates are weighted and cover bathrooms broadly.
Bathtub and Shower Injury Patterns by Age and Sex
The CDC grouped bathtubs and showers together when reporting location-specific injury measures. That distinction matters: the figures show tub-or-shower exposure, not bathtub-only risk.
| Measure, United States | Ages 15–24 | Ages 85+ |
|---|---|---|
| Tub-or-shower injury rate, 2008 | 49.7 per 100,000 | 200.2 per 100,000 |
| Tub-or-shower share of bathroom injuries, 2008 | 84.5% | 38.9% |
| Bathing or showering event share, 2008 | 34.3% | 15.5% |
| Toilet-use event share, 2008 | 2.0% | 36.9% |
Across everyone aged 15 or older, tub-or-shower injuries accounted for 159,818 weighted cases, or 68.3% of bathroom injuries, and the location-specific rate was 65.8 per 100,000. The toilet-area comparator rate was 22.5 per 100,000.
The age pattern changes by event type. The rate for getting on, off or using the toilet rose from 1.2 per 100,000 at ages 15–24 to 190.1 per 100,000 at ages 85 and older, while the toilet-area injury rate rose from 4.1 to 266.6 per 100,000.
Source: CDC, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008. Bathing or showering excludes slipping while bathing from that event category.
Bathtub Statistics on Injury Causes, Diagnoses and Body Parts
Falls dominated the bathroom-injury profile in the CDC’s 2008 estimate, while contusions, sprains and fractures were the most frequently reported diagnoses.
| Bathroom-injury measure, U.S. age 15+, 2008 | Share | Weighted cases |
|---|---|---|
| Falls as cause | 81.1% | 189,928 |
| Contusions or abrasions | 29.3% | 68,674 |
| Strains or sprains | 19.6% | 45,994 |
| Fractures | 17.4% | 40,699 |
| Lacerations | 15.0% | 35,031 |
| Internal injuries | 9.2% | 21,519 |
| Concussions | 1.6% | 3,653 |
The injured body region was the head or neck in 31.2% of cases, the lower trunk in 20.1%, the upper trunk in 18.3%, the leg or foot in 17.4% and the arm or hand in 12.7%. These body-region figures describe bathroom injuries overall and should not be read as bathtub-only distributions.
Emergency departments treated and released 84.9% of patients, or 198,730 weighted cases. Another 13.7%, or 32,030 weighted cases, were hospitalized, including transfers to another medical facility.
Source: CDC, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008.
Bathtub Safety Data and Bathing-Related Events
Event coding provides more detail than the broad tub-or-shower location category. In particular, the CDC separated slipping while bathing from bathing or showering as the precipitating event.
- Bathing or showering was the precipitating event in 27.5% of bathroom injuries, or 64,436 weighted cases, in the United States in 2008.
- Slipping was the precipitating event in 17.3%, or 40,450 weighted cases; this category includes slipping while bathing.
- Getting out of a tub or shower preceded 9.8%, or 23,055 weighted cases.
- Getting into a shower or tub preceded 2.2%, or 5,062 weighted cases.
- Loss of consciousness preceded 5.5%, or 12,872 weighted cases.
A 2004 survey cited in the CDC report found bathtub mats or nonskid strips in 63% of U.S. homes and grab bars in 19%. The survey is a secondary citation within the CDC report, is not the 2008 injury sample, and may include settings such as assisted living and nursing homes.
Source: CDC, Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008.
Bathtub Water-Use Statistics and Bathing Frequency
The EPA report Resource Use and Residuals Generation in Households summarizes historical household literature, much of it from the 1970s. Its figures often combine tub and shower use, so the scope and measurement type should remain attached to each number.
| Historical bathing measure | Reported value | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Bathing water use | 6.3–20.0 gallons per capita per day | Cited household studies |
| Bathing share of daily residential water use | 18%–37% | Cited household studies |
| Tub bathing water use | 20–30 gallons per use | Cited literature |
| Bathing frequency | 2.2–3.3 events per week | Cited household studies |
| Derived bathing-use range | 2.6–23.9 gallons per capita per day | EPA-derived, not direct national estimate |
The report also recorded shower water use from 2.5 gallons at the minimum to more than 50 gallons at the maximum, with reported shower flow rates of 5.0–10.0 gallons per minute. A separate bathing-event measure ranged from 16.3 to 31.5 gallons per shower event, using EPA wording that refers to bathing or showering rather than tub-only use.
Frequency varied by age in one cited study: teenagers aged 13–20 averaged 5.3 baths per person per week, adults averaged 1.9 baths per week, and children aged 1–2 averaged 1.1 baths per week. In cited seasonal data, warm-season bathing averaged 6.0 gallons per capita per day versus 7.0 in the cool season.
Source: EPA, Resource Use and Residuals Generation in Households. These are historical literature values, not current national bathtub-use estimates.
Bathtub Drowning Statistics Across Ages and Locations
CDC/NCHS Data Brief 149 reported 46,419 unintentional drowning deaths in the United States from 1999 through 2010, an average of 3,868 per year. The figures are mortality statistics across all drowning locations and are population-based rather than exposure-based.
- The overall unintentional drowning death rate fell 9.0%, from 1.44 per 100,000 in 1999 to 1.31 in 2010.
- The rate then rose 4.8%, from 1.25 per 100,000 in 2009 to 1.31 in 2010.
- Bathtubs accounted for 9.7% of unintentional drowning deaths, compared with 47.2% in natural water and 16.3% in swimming pools, during 1999–2010.
- Among infants under 1, bathtubs accounted for approximately 62% of unintentional drowning deaths during 1999–2010.
- Among adults aged 85 and older, the bathtub drowning rate was 0.48 deaths per 100,000; the corresponding swimming-pool rate was 0.44 and the natural-water rate was 0.40.
Location patterns also differed by sex and age. Natural water accounted for more than 52.7% of male unintentional drowning deaths, 50% of deaths among people aged 5–19 and 54% among adults aged 20–84, with boating included in the natural-water total.
Unintentional drowning became the leading cause of unintentional-injury death for boys aged 1–4 beginning in 2005. That is a cause ranking, not a bathtub-specific rate.
Source: CDC/NCHS, Unintentional Drowning: United States, 1999–2010. The report’s location categories should not be interpreted as bathtub ownership or bathtub-use rates.