The amount spent on fire protection per inhabitant in Malta is the lowest in Europe, it has emerged.

Official figures published by the EU’s statistics office, Eurostat, show that the government spends a mere €17 per person on fire protection, or just over €8 million in 2017.

Government expenditure on fire protection services across the EU’s 28 member states stood at €31.2 billion. Almost 300,000 people were employed as firefighters.

Overall, the public expenditure on fire protection services remained stable as a percentage of governments’ total bill since figures started being recorded in 2004.

Fire protection government expenditure per inhabitant was above €100 in four EU member states in the period under review: Luxembourg (€113), Finland (€106), the Netherlands (€104) and Sweden (€100), closely followed by Germany (€96) and France (€93).

Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal, Poland, Romania and Slovakia were among the member states that spent the lowest amount, none exceeding the €30 per inhabitant mark.

The ratio of government fire protection spend to total expenditure in Malta was also among the lowest, with only Denmark doing worse. According to Eurostat, the rate stood at 0.2 per cent in Malta, rising to 0.3 per cent in Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland and Austria, 0.7 per cent in Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, and 0.8 per cent in Bulgaria.