Last year, 98 people drowned, the second lowest annual toll since records began in 1980.
During the last decade there was an annual average of 116 drowning deaths, which is significantly lower than the average yearly toll of 143 in the previous decade, and 181 in the decade before that.
Water Safety New Zealand says community education is behind the improvement, though it points out that there were still 2.4 deaths per 100,000 people in this country last year, twice as many as in Australia.
