This expenditure is equivalent to 0.4% of the total government expenditure, less than the amount spent on police services (equivalent to 2.0% of total expenditure in 2017) and law courts (0.7%), but similar to government expenditure on prisons (0.4%).
The country with the highest expenditure was Bulgaria at 0.8%, with Denmark the lowest at 0.1%. Luxembourg spent an average of 0.3% of government expenditure on fire services, which equated to €113 per inhabitant - the highest across Europe. Other nations surpassing the €100 threshold were Finland (€106), the Netherlands (€104) and Sweden (€100), closely followed by Germany (€96) and France (€93).
In contrast, the lowest fire-protection expenditure per head was recorded in Malta (€17 per inhabitant), followed by Bulgaria (€21), Croatia and Portugal (both €22). The size of the population in each country accounts for the variation in expenditure.
Eurostat released this information in light of International Fire-Fighters’ Day on 4 May. Around 300,000 firefighters were employed across Europe in 2017 and 2018.
