2 firefighters in full gear fighting a fire.

In 2024, the EU countries combined had 390 600 professional firefighters, representing 0.19% of the total EU employment. Compared with 2023, the number of firefighters increased by 28 200.

Among the 20 EU countries with available data, Croatia registered the highest share of firefighters in total employment (0.45%). Greece followed with 0.41%, ahead of Czechia with 0.34%.

The lowest shares were registered in the Netherlands (0.07%), Denmark (0.08%) and Sweden (0.10%).

Share of firefighters in the total employment, 2024, %. Chart. See link to the full dataset below.

Source dataset:  ad hoc EU Labour Force Survey extraction

Across the EU, 75.2% of all professional firefighters were aged 15 to 49. That’s a noticeably younger workforce compared with the total EU employment, where only 64.8% of workers fall into that age group.

EU governments spent €40.6 billion on fire-protection services in 2023

In 2023, EU governments spent €40.6 billion on ‘fire-protection services’, reflecting an 8.5% increase in the general government expenditure on this function compared with 2022 (€37.4 billion). 

The increase in expenditure on fire-protection services in absolute numbers is however in line with the increases in other functions, so that fire-protection services have consistently accounted for 0.5% of total government expenditure since 2017.

General government expenditure on fire-protection services, 2023, % of total expenditure. Chart. See link to the full dataset below.

Source datasets: gov_10a_exp and  ad hoc calculation

In 2023, Romania had the highest share of expenditure on fire-protection services at 0.9% of general government total expenditure, followed by Estonia and Greece with 0.7% each. 

By contrast, Denmark reported the lowest share of expenditure on fire-protection services (0.1%), followed by Malta (0.2%), Portugal and Austria (both 0.3%). 

For more information

Methodological notes

  • Firefighters refer to the category '5411 Firefighters', as defined under the International standard classification of occupations (ISCO-08) classification. This category includes both firefighters and forest firefighters.
  • Data on firefighters in 2024 from the EU Labour Force Survey are not shown for Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia because of very low reliability. 
  • Low reliability data of the number of firefighters for Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. 
  • According to the methodology of the survey only people working in their main job as firefighters are included; voluntary workers, such as volunteer firefighters, are not included in employment statistics based on this activity.
  • General government expenditure for the function 'fire protection services' (according to the Classification of the functions of government – COFOG) is based on national accounts/government finance statistics.
  • ‘Fire protection services’ is part of the COFOG division ‘public order and safety’. According to the classification, it relates to the 'administration of fire prevention and firefighting affairs and services; operation of regular and auxiliary fire brigades and of other fire prevention and firefighting services maintained by public authorities; operation or support of fire prevention and firefighting training programmes. It includes civil protection services such as mountain rescue, beach surveillance, evacuation of flooded areas, etc'.
  • Manual on sources and methods for the compilation of COFOG statistics — Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG)
  • Data on government expenditure by function for the EU (2023), Belgium (2023), Germany (2021-2023), Spain (2023), France (all years), Portugal (2023) and Slovakia (all years) is provisional. 
  • Metadata file on government expenditure by function

For information on upcoming releases visit our release calendar. If you have any queries, please visit our contact us page.