Southern Europe has again been ravaged by wildfires and scorching temperatures, bringing firefighters into the spotlight. In 2022, there were 359 780 professional firefighters in the EU, representing 0.2% of total EU employment. Compared with 2021, there was a decrease in the total number of firefighters of 2 800 people.
Among EU countries for which reliable data are available, Greece, Estonia, and Cyprus registered the highest share of firefighters in their national employment, with shares of above 0.4%, while the Netherlands and France had the lowest shares at around 0.1%.
Source dataset: Labour Force Survey extraction
At EU level, in 2022, most of the firefighters were between 30 and 49 years old, with the age groups 40 – 44 years (65 730 people) and 35 – 39 years (59 810 people) having the highest numbers. There were also 45 280 firefighters between 15 and 29 years old, and 91 570 were 50 years and over.
Source : Eurostat
