The most recent censuses in England, Wales and Scotland included a question on veterans for the first time.

People aged 16 and over were asked whether they had previously served in the regular or reserve UK armed forces, or both. Anyone who has served in the armed forces for at least one day is classed as a veteran.

The Census in Northern Ireland did not ask about veteran status, although future estimates will be produced by linking data with the Ministry of Defence’s Service Leavers Database (PDF).

The dashboard on this page shows the number and proportion of UK armed forces veterans in constituencies across Great Britain. The data reflects the population on Census Day, which was 21 March 2021 in England and Wales and 20 March 2022 in Scotland.

We have also created Great Britain averages using 2021 data for England and Wales and 2022 data for Scotland. These figures are for comparative purposes, and don’t tell us about the population on a particular date.

Across Great Britain, 2.03 million people reported that they had previously served in the UK armed forces (76% in the regular forces, 20% in the reserve forces and 4% in both). This represents 3.8% (almost 1 in 25) of the total population aged 16 or over.

Overall, 7.0% of households in Great Britain included one or more veterans.

Go to section:

• Explore constituency data
• Top 20 constituencies by proportion of veterans
• Definitions, notes and sources

Explore constituency data

• Find which constituency you live in

Use the dropdown menu below to select the constituency you’re interested in and view statistics on the veteran population.

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If you would like to access this information in an alternative format please email papers@parliament.uk and we will review your request.

Top 20 constituencies by proportion of veterans

The table below shows the top 20 constituencies with the highest proportions of UK armed forces veterans.

Gosport had the highest proportion of veterans (12.7%), followed by Sleaford and North Hykeham (10.2%) and South West Devon (9.5%).

The constituencies with largest veteran populations tend to be near existing armed forces bases.

Open a printable version
Download all data in Excel (1.4 MB)

If you would like to access this information in an alternative format please email papers@parliament.uk and we will review your request.

Sources

England and Wales: ONS, 2021 Census custom dataset, UK armed forces veteran variable

Scotland: Scotland’s Census, Search census data, Tables UV901, UV901a and UV902

Data updates

This dashboard uses census data. The census is currently the only source of constituency-level data on this topic, which means that there aren’t any updates planned for the near future.