Is Scuba Diving Safe? What the Data Actually Says
Carolyn Bryan Sep 16, 2026
This is usually one of the first questions people ask before they book a Discover Scuba session, and it's a fair one. You're breathing underwater from a tank. It should feel like a reasonable thing to check before you commit.
What the Numbers Actually Show
According to a peer-reviewed review of diving casualties published on the National Library of Medicine's StatPearls resource, the recreational scuba diving fatality rate has held steady at about 2 deaths per 100,000 dives for years, even as gear and training have improved. Around 3 million Americans dive recreationally each year, and more than 9 million people identify as recreational divers overall. You can read the full breakdown in the StatPearls review of diving casualties.
That rate isn't zero, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. But it puts scuba diving in a very different category than the mental image a lot of people have of it before they try it.
Why Training Is What Actually Changes the Risk
Scuba diving isn't inherently risky the way, say, jumping out of a plane is inherently risky. Most of what can go wrong underwater is manageable if you know what to do and don't skip the steps that are built into your training for a reason: checking your gear before every dive, diving with a buddy, watching your air supply, and not pushing past what your certification level covers.
The certification process exists specifically to build those habits before you're ever in open water on your own. That's true whether you're training in a warm reef or in a cold Colorado reservoir.
What This Looks Like Locally
Colorado adds two variables most divers elsewhere don't deal with: cold water and altitude. Neither one makes diving unsafe, but both change how you should approach it. That's why we teach altitude adjustments as part of local training and why our Altitude Diver specialty exists as its own course rather than an afterthought. Diving here safely just means training for the conditions you're actually diving in.
Try It Before You Commit
If you're still on the fence, you don't have to decide anything by reading a blog post. Our PADI Discover Scuba session is a two-hour, instructor-supervised introduction in our indoor pool. You'll get a feel for the equipment and what breathing underwater actually feels like before you commit to a full certification.
Ready to Get Certified?
If Discover Scuba goes well and you want to keep going, the next step is PADI Open Water certification, which is where the real training on gear, buddy procedures, and emergency skills happens. You can see the whole path from first pool session to certified diver on our scuba certification guide.
