Data published by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, reveal that in 2024, Portugal had 12,800 firefighters, equivalent to 0.25% of total employment in the country.

In total, within the EU, the European Union countries combined had 390,600 professional firefighters last year, representing 0.19% of total employment in the EU.

That year, compared to 2023, the number of firefighters increased by 28,200.

Among the 20 EU countries with available data, Croatia recorded the highest proportion of firefighters in total employment at 0.45%, followed by Greece at 0.41%, and the Czech Republic at 0.34%.

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

In the EU, approximately 75% of all professional firefighters were between the ages of 15 and 49, making this, according to Eurostat, "a noticeably younger workforce compared to total employment in the EU, where only 64.8% of workers belong to this age group."

Data also published by the EU's statistical office on European countries' investment in fire protection services in 2023 shows that Portugal was the third worst of the 27, allocating 0.3% of government spending to this area, the same as Austria.

They were only behind Denmark (0.1%) and Malta (0.2%).

In contrast, in 2023, Romania had the highest proportion of spending on fire protection services, with 0.9% of total government expenditure, followed by Estonia and Greece, with 0.7% each.

Overall, in 2023, EU governments spent €40.6 billion on fire protection services, reflecting an 8.5% increase in public spending on this function compared to 2022 (when €37.4 billion was recorded).

“The increase in spending on fire protection services, in absolute terms, is in line with increases in other functions, so that fire protection services have consistently represented 0.5% of total government expenditure since 2017,” Eurostat further states.

The data comes as mainland Portugal has been affected by multiple large rural fires since July, particularly in the North and Central regions.