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National Fire Department Registry quick facts

Registry last updated: May 15, 2018

Fire departments registered

There are 27,226 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: 27,226

Show state totals in table format Hide table

State Count
Total 27,226
Alabama 804
Alaska 157
Arizona 249
Arkansas 682
California 874
Colorado 325
Connecticut 251
Delaware 58
District of Columbia 3
Florida 478
Georgia 463
Hawaii 11
Idaho 194
Illinois 1,106
Indiana 765
Iowa 732
Kansas 505
Kentucky 682
Louisiana 423
Maine 337
Maryland 261
Massachusetts 362
Michigan 965
Minnesota 725
Mississippi 413
Missouri 774
Montana 279
Nebraska 391
Nevada 87
New Hampshire 213
New Jersey 712
New Mexico 245
New York 1,665
North Carolina 1,085
North Dakota 324
Ohio 1,145
Oklahoma 744
Oregon 308
Pennsylvania 1,798
Rhode Island 72
South Carolina 441
South Dakota 293
Tennessee 639
Texas 1,530
Utah 196
Vermont 204
Virginia 549
Washington 402
West Virginia 412
Wisconsin 767
Wyoming 115
U.S. territories 11

Stations

Registered fire departments represent approximately 51,043 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

97.4%
Minnesota

97.0%
Pennsylvania

96.6%
Vermont

96.6%
South Dakota

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

100.0%
District of Columbia

90.9%
Hawaii

52.3%
Florida

45.0%
Massachusetts

42.3%
Arizona

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

State Volunteer Mostly volunteer Mostly career Career
Total 70.8 16.0 4.5 8.7
Alabama 79.9 9.0 3.5 7.5
Alaska 59.4 29.7 1.9 9.0
Arizona 30.5 27.2 17.1 25.2
Arkansas 84.1 9.4 2.7 3.8
California 29.6 28.8 16.4 25.2
Colorado 46.2 31.1 9.2 13.5
Connecticut 61.8 23.1 4.0 11.2
Delaware 44.8 53.4 0.0 1.7
District of Columbia 0.0 0.0 33.3 66.7
Florida 34.9 12.8 16.9 35.4
Georgia 51.1 24.1 8.7 16.1
Hawaii 9.1 0.0 18.2 72.7
Idaho 59.1 30.6 2.6 7.8
Illinois 65.9 14.7 6.3 13.1
Indiana 74.1 14.4 2.6 8.9
Iowa 90.2 5.7 0.8 3.3
Kansas 79.4 10.7 3.8 6.1
Kentucky 75.8 15.0 3.5 5.6
Louisiana 49.4 36.4 5.0 9.2
Maine 72.5 21.8 2.7 3.0
Maryland 60.8 28.1 4.6 6.5
Massachusetts 25.4 29.6 16.3 28.7
Michigan 64.1 22.8 3.8 9.2
Minnesota 87.1 10.3 0.7 1.9
Mississippi 71.2 15.5 3.6 9.7
Missouri 72.9 12.1 5.7 9.4
Montana 83.9 9.7 1.8 4.7
Nebraska 92.3 3.9 1.0 2.8
Nevada 54.7 25.6 8.1 11.6
New Hampshire 53.8 31.6 9.4 5.2
New Jersey 75.7 13.0 3.7 7.6
New Mexico 78.7 10.2 2.5 8.6
New York 90.0 4.6 1.1 4.2
North Carolina 63.0 28.2 4.3 4.4
North Dakota 92.3 4.3 0.3 3.1
Ohio 61.0 22.0 4.7 12.3
Oklahoma 81.6 10.0 2.3 6.1
Oregon 44.2 46.4 3.6 5.8
Pennsylvania 90.3 6.7 0.6 2.5
Rhode Island 38.0 23.9 9.9 28.2
South Carolina 55.7 26.0 10.3 8.0
South Dakota 92.2 4.4 0.3 3.1
Tennessee 74.9 12.4 5.3 7.4
Texas 71.8 13.1 4.8 10.3
Utah 67.5 20.1 5.7 6.7
Vermont 88.2 8.4 2.5 1.0
Virginia 72.4 16.6 4.4 6.6
Washington 40.3 39.5 9.0 11.3
West Virginia 90.9 4.7 1.2 3.2
Wisconsin 80.5 12.0 1.8 5.6
Wyoming 72.2 17.4 0.0 10.4
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 76.3
Fire/Injury prevention/Public education 62.1
Wildfire/Wildland Urban Interface 61.7
Basic Life Support 58.6
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) nontransport response 38.7
Technical/Specialized rescue 34.7
Fire investigation/Fire cause determination 6 34.7
Fire inspection/Code enforcement 34.4
Departmental (in-house) training academy 22.0
Advanced Life Support 20.8
EMS ambulance transport 20.7
Hazardous materials team 17.7
Juvenile firesetter intervention program 13.6
Airport/Aviation 7.7
Fireboat 4.3

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. 102 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 102 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, 18.0 percent have sworn investigators with power to arrest.