U.S. Fire Department Profile – 2015

This profile provides a wealth of data breaking down and detailing the make-up of fire departments in the United States and the services they provide. NFPA estimates there were approximately 1,160,450 firefighters in the U.S. in 2015. An estimated 345,600 (30%) of these were career firefighters and 814,850 (70%) were volunteer firefighters. Most of the career firefighters (71%) worked in communities that protected 25,000 or more people. Most of the volunteer firefighters (95%) were in departments that protected fewer than 25,000 people. There are an estimated 29,727 fire departments in the U.S. Of these, 2,651 departments were staffed by all career firefighters, 1,893 were mostly career, 5,421 were mostly volunteer and 19,762 were all volunteer.