Emergency numbers and public alert systems, country by country

The number, and where it is not 112

13 of the 19 countries here answer on 112, which is the single emergency number across the European Union and works from any phone, on any network, without a SIM. The exceptions are the ones worth memorising before a trip: the United Kingdom uses 999, Australia 000, New Zealand 111, and Canada and the United States 911.

Israel is the one country here with no combined line at all: police, ambulance and fire each have their own number, and the Home Front Command has a fourth.

In most of Europe 112 also works alongside an older national number, so both are correct and neither is wrong to dial.

Public alerts work in three different ways

The difference matters more than the name of the channel, because it decides whether you have anything to do in advance.

• It arrives by itself in 11 of the countries here (Australia, Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States). These run on cell broadcast, which pushes a message to every handset in the affected area without knowing who is there. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. The only thing worth checking is that emergency alerts are still switched on in the phone settings, because they can be turned off.
• It needs an app in 4 (Finland, Germany, Israel, and Switzerland). The alert reaches the phones the app is on, and no others. This is the one worth doing on a quiet evening.
• It needs a sign-up in 1: Belgium. BE-Alert only reaches people who have registered an address or a phone number, which makes Belgium the country on this page where doing nothing means being unwarned.

Why cell broadcast is not a text message

A cell broadcast is sent to an area rather than to a list of numbers. The network never learns who received it and the authority never holds a list of who is there, which is why these systems can be run without anyone registering and without a privacy trade.

It also means the message arrives on a phone that is roaming, on a prepaid SIM, and on a handset that has never been used in the country before. The requirement is a reasonably current phone with up-to-date software, not a subscription.

Every country, its number, and how its alerts reach you

The five minutes that make the difference

• Check that emergency alerts are switched on in the phone settings of every phone in the house. On both major phone systems they are on by default and can be turned off by accident.
• If your country runs its alerts through an app, install it now rather than during the thing it is warning you about.
• If you live in Belgium, register for BE-Alert. It is the only channel on this page that reaches nobody who has not asked for it.
• Write the emergency number on paper somewhere in the house. Children and visitors are the people most likely to need it and least likely to know it.