% of volunteers among the fire fighters.

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international comparison of the % of volunteers among the fire fighters. It is said 65% for the USA. Australia, Canada, Japan, S Korea?

The claim that <65% of U.S. firefighters are volunteers> is broadly correct only when <paid-on-call firefighters> are grouped with unpaid volunteers. The latest U.S. Fire Administration registry reports 52% volunteer, 13% paid-per-call, and 35% career firefighters.

Country	Approx. volunteer share	What the figure means
United States	52% strictly volunteer; 65% including paid-per-call	Career firefighters are 35% of registered active personnel.
Australia	about 88%	Approximation based on 190,042 volunteer fire-service personnel versus 24,760 paid full-time-equivalent personnel in 2024–25. The volunteer figure includes some support personnel, so it is not a perfectly clean firefighter-only percentage.
Canada	71%	The 2024 Canadian Fire Census reports 87,372 volunteer and 36,396 career firefighters: 70.6% volunteer.
Japan	about 82%	As of April 2024, Japan had 746,681 volunteer fire-corps members and roughly 168,000 professional municipal firefighters. Volunteer corps members are part-time local public servants, often assisting mainly with prevention and major disasters.
South Korea	about 62% on paper	International statistics list 94,257 volunteer brigade members and 57,779 career firefighters, based on 2019 Korean data. But Korean 의용소방대 members formally <assist> professional services and should not automatically be equated with American volunteer firefighters who staff local fire stations.

Ranked approximately

1. Australia — 88%
2. Japan — 82%
3. Canada — 71%
4. United States — 65% including paid-on-call, or 52% strictly volunteer
5. South Korea — 62% under the broad international classification

The most important conclusion is that <Australia and Japan appear much more volunteer-dependent numerically than the United States>. However, raw membership exaggerates operational dependence in both countries. Australia’s totals include support members and many bushfire volunteers who are not regularly deployed; Japan’s large local fire corps primarily reinforce professional municipal departments during major disasters and undertake prevention work.

Canada and the United States provide the most directly comparable figures because volunteers commonly constitute the operational staffing of rural and small-community fire departments. South Korea is the least directly comparable: its volunteer brigades are legally auxiliary organizations rather than substitutes for professional 119 fire stations.

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