DLRG Membership Reaches Record High Amid Growing Demand for Water Safety

The Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft (DLRG) has announced a significant increase in its membership numbers, achieving a record high of over 627,000 members by the end of 2024. This marks a 3.3% rise from the previous year's total of 607,310 members, continuing a trend of consecutive annual growth.

Ute Vogt, the president of DLRG, emphasized the importance of this growth in enhancing safety measures for swimming and water sports. The organization aims to leverage this momentum to further improve public safety in aquatic environments.

Among the regional branches of DLRG, the Hamburg state association experienced the most considerable growth, with an increase of 7.8%, bringing its membership to 5,654. Other notable regions include Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which saw a 7.6% rise to 5,430 members, and Brandenburg, with a 7.3% increase to 4,764 members. All 18 regional associations reported more new members than departures in 2024.

The Niedersachsen branch, the largest with 102,522 members, recorded a growth of 3.6% compared to the previous year. Overall, DLRG has gained more than 50,000 members since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago.

Demographics within the organization show that 10% of members are aged 60 or older, while 47.5% are women. Notably, nearly half (49%) of the members are 18 years old or younger, with approximately 200,000 children aged 12 and under involved in the organization.

Despite the encouraging growth in membership, the DLRG faces challenges in providing swimming lessons, attributed largely to a significant backlog in public pool maintenance and investments. The organization points to an urgent need for renovations in aging swimming facilities, stressing that many of the pools are over 50 years old and may face closure without immediate action.

The DLRG has called for a roundtable discussion involving federal, state, and municipal authorities to address this issue, aiming to establish a comprehensive national swimming facility planning strategy. The organization insists that ensuring access to swimming lessons for children is a fundamental obligation, advocating that every child should be able to swim confidently by the time they complete elementary school.

In mid-January, the DLRG highlighted the critical role of indoor swimming pools in providing essential swimming instruction. They warned that without significant renovations, as many as one in seven public swimming pools could close within the next three years, based on a study conducted by the German Institute for Urban Affairs. The study revealed that nearly two-thirds of indoor swimming pools have been rated as having a substantial backlog in necessary investments.