Firefighters make up 0.4 per cent of workforce in Cyprus

Cyprus has the second highest percentage of professional firefighters in the EU, according to a study published on Tuesday by Eurostat, covering data from 2021.

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

With firefighters making up around 0.4 per cent 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 per cent increase from 2019, when expenditure was around €30.9 billion.

On average this represented between 0.4 and 0.5 per cent 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 per cent, followed by Iceland with 0.2 per cent and Belgium, Malta, Austria, Portugal and Slovenia with 0.3 per cent.

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

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