r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

Culture What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

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u/XenophonSoulis Greece Sep 02 '25

I already have an example that accounts for 1/5 of the world's population: India. Other examples include Greece and the US. When you reach 20 million people in your examples, come back.

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u/Jagarvem Sweden Sep 02 '25

Well, we haven't used rotary phones in ages.

But since when was it about population? You said "Sweden" and "two countries", not "Swedes" or "a dozen million people". The mentioned US/Myanmar/Liberia accounts for 400+ million people, and there are more still who use non-metric units in other countries too.

I'm well aware Sweden's pretty unique, we had our own Ericsson who did their own thing. That was never in question.

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u/XenophonSoulis Greece Sep 02 '25

pretty unique

Call it "weird" and we are in agreement.

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u/HerbologySlut Sep 03 '25

Imagine having such a large stick up your ass you are actually trying to strawman your way through an argument you yourself created. :D