That includes mariners [and] even many (most) rescue professionals: It is impossible to die from hypothermia in cold water unless you are wearing flotation, because without flotation – you won’t live long enough to become hypothermic. Submersion into cold water can induce cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rates) in healthy people, sometimes causing strong swimmers to drown. The physiological effects caused by the diving reflex conflict with the bodys cold shock response, which includes a gasp and uncontrollable hyperventilation leading to aspiration of water. While breath-holding triggers a slower heart rate, cold shock activates tachycardia, an increase in heart rate. It is thought that this conflict of these nervous system responses may account for the arrhythmias of cold water submersion.Heat transfers very well into water, and body heat is therefore lost extremely quickly in water compared to air, even in merely cool swimming waters around 70 °F (~20 °C). A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) can lead to death in as little as one hour, and water temperatures hovering at freezing can lead to death in as little as 15 minutes. This is because cold water can have other lethal effects on the body. Hence, hypothermia is not usually a reason for drowning or the clinical cause of death for those who drown in cold water. Upon submersion into cold water, remaining calm and preventing loss of body heat is paramount.
According to CDC data collected from 1999 to 2019, drowning rates among Native Americans was 2 times higher than non-Hispanic whites while the rate among African-Americans was 1.5 times higher. Surveys indicate that 10% of children under 5 have experienced a situation with a high risk of drowning. Worldwide, about 175,000 children die through drowning every year. The causes of drowning cases in the US from 1999 to 2006 were as follows:

According to the US National Safety Council, 353 people ages 5 to 24 drowned in 2017. Society and culture
Old terminology
The word "drowning"—like "electrocution"—was previously used to describe fatal events only. Occasionally, that usage is still insisted upon, though the medical communitys consensus supports the definition used in this article. Several terms related to drowning which have been used in the past are also no longer recommended. These include:

Active drowning: People, such as non-swimmers and the exhausted or hypothermic at the surface, who are unable to hold their mouth above water and are suffocating due to lack of air. Instinctively, people in such cases perform well-known behaviors in the last 20–60 seconds before being submerged, representing the bodys last efforts to obtain air. Notably, such people are unable to call for help, talk, reach for rescue equipment, or alert swimmers even feet away, and they may drown quickly and silently close to other swimmers or safety. Dry drowning: Drowning in which no water enters the lungs. Near drowning: Drowning which is not fatal. Wet drowning: Drowning in which water enters the lungs.