Report: NFPA's "U.S. Fire Department Profile"
Author: Rita Fahy, Ben Evarts and Gary P. Stein
Issued: December 2021
Key findings
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NFPA estimates there were an estimated 1,080,800 career and volunteer firefighters in the United States in 2019. Of the total number of firefighters 358,000 (33%) were career firefighters and 722,800 (67%) were volunteer firefighters.
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In 2019, 88,800 firefighters were female (8%). Of the career firefighters, 14,900 were female. There were also 73,900 volunteer firefighters who were female.
- Fifty percent of firefighters are between 30 and 49 years old.
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There were 29,537 fire departments in the United States in 2019. Of these, 18% were all career or mostly career departments and protected 69% of the US population.
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Nationwide 38% of fire departments provided no emergency medical services, 46% provided basic life support (BLS), and 17% provided advanced life support (ALS).
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