National Fire Department Registry quick facts

Registry last updated: Jan. 24, 2020

Fire departments registered

There are 27,203 fire departments listed with the National Fire Department Registry. This is about 91 percent of all U.S. fire departments. Registration for the list is voluntary.

Estimated

91%

of fire departments are listed in the registry

Fire departments by region

The majority of the registered departments are located in the Southern and Midwestern states. The map shows the percentage distribution of fire departments by U.S. Census Bureau Region. Less than 1 percent of the registered fire departments are located in U.S. territories.

Fire departments by region 13% 31% 36% 21%

Percentage of registered fire departments by region 1

South 36%
Midwest 31%
Northeast 21%
West 13%

Number of registered fire departments by state and territories

There are 11 registered fire departments in U.S. territories.

Total number of registered fire departments by state and territories: 27,203

Show state totals in table format Hide table

State Count
Total 27,203
Alabama 810
Alaska 157
Arizona 251
Arkansas 688
California 878
Colorado 325
Connecticut 252
Delaware 58
District of Columbia 3
Florida 475
Georgia 464
Hawaii 12
Idaho 196
Illinois 1,108
Indiana 764
Iowa 732
Kansas 505
Kentucky 683
Louisiana 426
Maine 339
Maryland 262
Massachusetts 363
Michigan 965
Minnesota 725
Mississippi 414
Missouri 775
Montana 280
Nebraska 392
Nevada 87
New Hampshire 213
New Jersey 716
New Mexico 246
New York 1,664
North Carolina 1,087
North Dakota 325
Ohio 1,131
Oklahoma 743
Oregon 305
Pennsylvania 1,792
Rhode Island 68
South Carolina 443
South Dakota 294
Tennessee 634
Texas 1,510
Utah 191
Vermont 204
Virginia 552
Washington 401
West Virginia 409
Wisconsin 762
Wyoming 113
U.S. territories 11

Stations

Registered fire departments represent approximately 51,383 fire stations across the country. 2

Organization type

Personnel

Department type

Of the fire departments registered: 4, 5

Department type by state

Percentage of registered volunteer and mostly volunteer fire departments, top five states by rank

98.3%
Delaware

97.2%
Minnesota

96.8%
Pennsylvania

96.6%
South Dakota

96.6%
North Dakota

Percentage of registered career and mostly career fire departments, top five states by rank

100.0%
District of Columbia

91.7%
Hawaii

52.8%
Florida

44.9%
Massachusetts

43.1%
Arizona

Percentage of fire departments registered by department type within each state 5

State Volunteer Mostly volunteer Mostly career Career
Total 70.5 16.0 4.7 8.8
Alabama 79.9 9.2 3.5 7.5
Alaska 59.4 29.7 1.9 9.0
Arizona 30.6 26.2 18.1 25.0
Arkansas 84.1 9.5 2.6 3.8
California 29.8 28.7 16.3 25.2
Colorado 46.2 31.1 8.9 13.8
Connecticut 61.5 23.4 4.0 11.1
Delaware 43.1 55.2 0.0 1.7
District of Columbia 0.0 0.0 33.3 66.7
Florida 34.7 12.4 17.1 35.8
Georgia 51.0 24.3 8.2 16.5
Hawaii 8.3 0.0 16.7 75.0
Idaho 59.5 30.3 2.6 7.7
Illinois 66.0 14.5 6.4 13.1
Indiana 74.2 14.3 2.6 8.9
Iowa 90.2 5.7 0.8 3.3
Kansas 79.4 10.7 3.8 6.1
Kentucky 76.1 14.6 3.8 5.4
Louisiana 49.3 35.9 5.4 9.4
Maine 72.1 22.3 2.7 3.0
Maryland 60.5 28.7 4.2 6.5
Massachusetts 25.6 29.5 16.3 28.7
Michigan 63.9 22.9 3.9 9.2
Minnesota 86.9 10.3 0.8 1.9
Mississippi 71.0 15.5 3.9 9.7
Missouri 72.8 11.9 5.8 9.5
Montana 83.9 9.3 2.1 4.6
Nebraska 92.0 4.1 1.0 2.8
Nevada 54.7 25.6 8.1 11.6
New Hampshire 52.8 32.5 9.4 5.2
New Jersey 75.9 12.9 3.6 7.6
New Mexico 78.8 10.2 2.4 8.6
New York 90.2 4.2 1.4 4.2
North Carolina 62.9 28.2 4.4 4.5
North Dakota 92.3 4.3 0.3 3.1
Ohio 60.7 21.8 5.0 12.5
Oklahoma 81.6 10.2 2.2 6.1
Oregon 43.9 46.2 3.6 6.2
Pennsylvania 90.2 6.6 0.7 2.5
Rhode Island 38.2 23.5 2.9 35.3
South Carolina 53.4 24.9 12.7 9.0
South Dakota 91.8 4.8 0.3 3.1
Tennessee 73.6 13.6 4.7 8.1
Texas 70.3 11.9 6.4 11.4
Utah 65.3 21.1 5.3 8.4
Vermont 87.7 8.4 2.5 1.5
Virginia 70.8 17.6 4.7 6.9
Washington 39.3 38.3 10.8 11.5
West Virginia 90.6 4.9 1.2 3.2
Wisconsin 78.8 13.7 1.6 5.9
Wyoming 70.8 18.6 0.9 9.7
U.S. territories 9.1 0.0 18.2 72.7

State totals may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Specialized services

Percentage of registered fire departments providing specialized services

Specialized service provided Percentage
Vehicle extrication 77.0
Fire/Injury prevention/Public education 63.1
Wildfire/Wildland Urban Interface 62.5
Basic Life Support 59.2
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) nontransport response 39.3
Technical/Specialized rescue 35.3
Fire investigation/Fire cause determination 6 35.1
Fire inspection/Code enforcement 34.7
Departmental (in-house) training academy 21.9
Advanced Life Support 21.0
EMS ambulance transport 20.8
Hazardous materials team 17.8
Juvenile firesetter intervention program 13.7
Airport/Aviation 7.9
Fireboat 4.5

Annual Registry snapshots

Notes

  1. The regions of the U.S. are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont); South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia); Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin); and West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming).
  2. For counties in Maryland, Nevada and Virginia where it is known that both the county-level fire department registered and the individual fire departments affiliated with that county department also registered, the computation of the number of stations includes only the number of stations reported by the county-level department to avoid counting stations twice.
  3. 93 fire departments did not provide their number of active firefighting personnel and were not included in this analysis. For counties in Maryland, Nevada and Virginia where it is known that both the county-level fire department registered and the individual fire departments associated with that county department also registered, we only counted personnel reported by the county-level departments to avoid counting personnel twice. Numbers of personnel were rounded to the nearest 100.
  4. The department type is based on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) definition (Career: 100 percent of a department’s firefighters are career; Mostly Career: 51-99 percent of a department’s firefighters are career; Mostly Volunteer: 1-50 percent of a department’s firefighters are career; Volunteer: 100 percent of a department’s firefighters are volunteer).
  5. The number of fire department personnel are used to determine the department type. There were 93 fire departments that did not provide the number of active firefighting personnel. These departments were excluded from this analysis.
  6. Of the departments that provide fire investigation/fire cause determination services, 18.8 percent have sworn investigators with power to arrest.