Fire Protection

Types of Degrees Fire Protection Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many fire protection graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	7,074
Associate Degree	3,986
Bachelor’s Degree	1,461
Undergraduate Certificate	1,073
Master’s Degree	153
Graduate Certificate	16
Doctor’s Degree	3

What Fire Protection Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, fire protection majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Fire Protection Majors

Fire Protection majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

Skills for Fire Protection Majors

A major in fire protection prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

Abilities for Fire Protection Majors

Fire Protection majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Fire Protection Major?

People with a fire protection degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Compliance Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Fire Inspectors	7.3%	$62,510
Fire Investigators	7.3%	$62,510
Forest Fire Fighting and Prevention Supervisors	7.1%	$76,330
Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists	29.4%	$39,600
Forest Firefighters	7.2%	$49,620
Loss Prevention Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Municipal Fire Fighting and Prevention Supervisors	7.1%	$76,330
Municipal Firefighters	7.2%	$49,620
Regulatory Affairs Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Security Managers	8.0%	$107,480

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Fire Protection?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 1,461 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fire protection in 2021, making it rank #147 in popularity. This major attracts more men than women. About 91% of the graduates in this field are male.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of fire protection majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	24
Black or African American	40
Hispanic or Latino	114
White	1,005
International Students	16
Other Races/Ethnicities	262

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Fire Protection, too. About 1.1% of those with this major are international students. The most popular countries for students from outside the country are:

• Saudi Arabia
• Qatar
• Canada
• Kuwait
• China

How Much Do Fire Protection Majors Make?

Bachelor’s Degree Starting Salary

The U.S. Department of Education found that students who graduated in 2017-2019 with a bachelor’s degree in fire protection made a median starting salary of $73,459 per year. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $49,859 (25th percentile) and $73,459 (75th percentile).

We don’t know for sure if all of these people took jobs related to fire protection so take that into consideration.

Salaries According to BLS

Fire Protection majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $53,240 to $80,310 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Fire Protection

Some careers associated with fire protection require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to fire protection have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	3.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	23.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	14.8%
Some College Courses	13.8%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	14.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	24.3%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.7%
Master’s Degree	3.9%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.6%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	1.2%
Doctoral Degree	0.9%
Post-Doctoral Training	0.0%

Online Fire Protection Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 493 schools offered some type of fire protection program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	213	13
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	473	53
Bachelor’s Degree	5	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	9	3
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Fire Protection Worth It?

The median salary for a fire protection grad is $64,140 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 61% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $484,800 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Fire Protection

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to fire protection.

Major	Number of Grads
Criminal Justice & Corrections	113,121
Homeland Security	7,140
Security Science and Technology	6,888
Other Homeland Security	1,695

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.