In Latvia, the proportion of professional firefighters is higher than the EU average
In Latvia, professional firefighters accounted for 0.25% of the total workforce, which is higher than the European Union average. In 2025, there were 372,400 professional firefighters in the EU, or 0.18% of the total workforce, according to LSM English.
Data on the share of firefighters in total employment was available for 22 countries. The highest figures were recorded in Greece (0.47%), Croatia (0.43%), and Portugal (0.33%).
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The lowest shares among the countries for which data was available were recorded in the Netherlands (0.05%), Austria (0.07%), and Sweden (0.10%). Latvia’s rate of 0.25% placed the country in the middle of the list.
Fire departments also have a relatively younger workforce. Among all employed firefighters, 74.7% were under 50 years old, while among the general workforce, the share of employees under 50 was 64.4%.
