In 2023, there were 362 400 professional firefighters in the EU, representing 0.18% of total EU employment. Compared with 2022, the number of firefighters increased by 3 200.
Among the 21 EU countries with available data, the highest shares of firefighters in total employment were registered in Croatia (0.49%), followed by Estonia and Greece (both 0.39%).
Latvia sits in sixth place in the rankings with firefighters representing 0.30% of total employment. Interestingly, while Estonia's figure is higher, Lithuania's figure is much lower at just 0.16%.
The lowest shares were registered in the Netherlands (0.05%), Finland, Slovenia and Sweden (both 0.13%).
At the EU level, firefighters aged 30 to 49 made up 61% of all firefighters. Among them, the largest subgroups were those aged 40 to 44 (65 600 firefighters), followed by those aged 35 to 39 (59 100 firefighters).
Despite having a relatively large number of professional firefighters, the Latvian government spends slightly less on fire protection services than the EU average.
The share of general government total expenditure in the EU dedicated to fire-protection services was 0.5%. Overall, government expenditure on fire-protection services has remained stable at 0.5% of total expenditure since 2016. In Latvia, the level is 0.4%.
In 2022, Denmark reported the lowest share of expenditure on fire-protection services, at 0.1% of general government total expenditure, followed by Malta, Slovenia, Portugal and Austria with 0.3% each.
In contrast, Romania had the highest share of expenditure on fire-protection services at 0.7% of total expenditure, followed by Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and Czechia with 0.6% each.
