According to the study, 365,100 people were employed as professional firefighters in the EU in 2021, representing 0.2% of total EU employment.

With firefighters making up around 0.4% of their workforces, Estonia, Cyprus, Romania, and Slovakia recorded the highest share of firefighters among member states, it said.

In general, governments across the EU27 spent a total of €32.9 billion on fire protection services in 2021, a 6.4% increase from 2019, when expenditure was around €30.9 billion.

On average this represented between 0.4 and 0.5% of total government expenditure, a number that, according to the study, has remained stable since the beginning of the time series in 2001.

However, the number varied across member states, with Denmark reporting the lowest rate at 0.1%, followed by Iceland with 0.2% and Belgium, Malta, Austria, Portugal and Slovenia with 0.3%.

On the other side of the spectrum, Romania spent the most on fire protection with 0.8%, followed by Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania and Luxembourg with 0.6%.

In Cyprus, spending on fire protection amounted to 0.4% of total government expenditure.

Source: Cyprus Mail