At least 40 people die from drowning every hour of every day around the world, a major new report has found.

According to the Global Report on Drowning: Preventing a Leading Killer, which was compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), 372,000 people drown every year and it is one of the main causes of death among children and young people in every part of the world.

In fact, over half of all drowning deaths occur in people under the age of 25 and the highest rates for drowning are seen in children under the age of five.

The report also noted that males are twice as likely to drown as females.

Figures from Irish Water Safety show that between 2010 and 2013, 478 people drowned in Ireland. Most of these were either accidental deaths or deaths by suicide.

The WHO report calls for more action from both national policy-makers and local communities.

"Efforts to reduce child mortality have brought remarkable gains in recent decades, but they have also revealed otherwise hidden childhood killers. Drowning is one. This is a needless loss of life. Action must be taken by national and local governments to put in place the simple preventive measures articulated by the WHO," commented WHO director-general, Dr Margaret Chan.

The WHO recommends a number of strategies for local communities, such as the installation of barriers to control access to water and teaching children basic swimming skills.

Nationally, strategies should include comprehensive water safety policies and better flood risk management.

Meanwhile, Dr Etienne Krug of the WHO reminded people that ‘almost all water presents a drowning risk, particularly inside and around our homes'.

"Drowning occurs in bathtubs, buckets, ponds, rivers, ditches and pools, as people go about their daily lives. Losing hundreds of thousands of lives this way is unacceptable given what we know about prevention," he added.