According to the 2016 Health barometer, published this Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in the Weekly epidemiological bulletin (BEH), one in seven French people cannot swim and 500 die each summer from drowning. The results of the questionnaire, sent to several thousand people, take stock of the swimming ability of 15 to 75 year olds in mainland France. Even if the figure remains high (16.3%), it shows a marked improvement since the previous barometer in 2010. Six years earlier, 18.7% of French people declared that they could not swim.
Socio-economic factors involved
According to the study, learning to swim at school was beneficial. The younger generations know how to swim much more often than their elders, a sign that the 1965 circular which placed as a national priority the fact of teaching to swim to all pupils has been well integrated. 2016, 83.7% of 15-75 year olds living in mainland France said they knew how to swim, compared to 81.3% in 2010. According to the authors of the study, “learning to swim from the 1960s, particularly in school environment, is probably responsible for the considerable improvement in the swimming ability of the population, especially among women”.
But many of the over 65 still say they do not know how to swim: 35.3% in 2016. A worrying result because it is an age particularly affected by drowning according to the BEH, which recalls that “learning can be done at any age “.
In addition to age, inequalities are also felt between the sexes. Women say they know how to swim less often than men. In 2016, 21.7% of women could not swim compared to 10.8% for men. Disparities are also observed at the regional level. There are more swimmers in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Corsica (89.2%) than in Haut-de-France (75.7%).
To conclude, the authors of the study point out that “the factors associated with the ability to swim are above all socio-economic: a diploma higher than the baccalaureate, being professionally active, being from a high or average socio-professional category and having an income raised”.
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