Interesting Statistics Involving Firefighting in the United States

There are many interesting statistics about firefighters and firefighting.  Here are just a few:

1.     According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there are over 1.1 million firefighters in the United States. Of these, 35% are career firefighters while 65% are volunteer firefighters.

2.     The average age of an employed firefighter is 48 years old.

3.     About 9% of firefighters are female.

4.     The most common ethnicity of firefighters is White (76.8%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (8.2%), Unknown (5.9%) and Black or African American (5.8%).

5.     Firefighters are on duty for about 50 hours each week.

6.     According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of firefighters is projected to grow 4 percent from 2021 to 2031, about as fast as the average for all occupations.

7.     There are around 27,000 fire departments in the United States.

8.     In a typical year fire departments in the U.S. responded to over 1.3 million fire calls.

9.     Non-Fire Calls: Interestingly, fire departments respond to many more non-fire calls. In a typical year they responded to 21.8 million non-fire emergencies, including medical aid, hazardous materials incidents, and rescue calls.

10.  Based on data reported by fire departments responding to the 2021 national fire experience survey, NFPA estimates that 60,750 firefighter injuries occurred in the line of duty in 2021.

11.  Firefighter Fatalities: In any given year approximately 50-60 firefighters die while on duty in the U.S.

12.  Property Damage: Fires caused an estimated $14.8 billion in property damage in the U.S. in 2019.

13.  Firefighting Budget: The annual budget for firefighting in the U.S. is estimated to be over $40 billion.

14.  Wildfires: In 2020, over 58,950 wildfires were reported in the U.S., burning over 10.1 million acres of land.