Afghanistan statistics: UK deaths, casualties, mission costs and refugees

UK armed forces deaths and casualties

Over the 20 years that British troops were deployed in Afghanistan, there were 457 deaths of UK armed forces personnel. The number of fatalities peaked in 2009 and 2010, during the UK’s deployments to Helmand Province, when over 100 personnel were killed in each of these years. Of the 457 personnel who died while on deployment to Afghanistan, 405 were killed due to hostile military action.

Source: Ministry of Defence, UK armed forces deaths: operational deaths post World War 2

In addition to deaths in service, there were 616 serious or very serious casualties among armed forces and civilian personnel during Operation Herrick (the codename under which the UK military conducted operations in Afghanistan from 2002 to the end of 2014). As with deaths, these casualties peaked in 2009 and 2010.

There were 7,807 field hospital admissions recorded during Operation Herrick (data is available from April 2006 onwards), although most admissions were related to disease or a non-battle injury. Around 28% (2,209) of admissions to field hospitals were those wounded in action.

Additionally, there were 7,477 medical air evacuations over the same period.

Cost of UK operations in Afghanistan

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes information on the cost of military operations and interventions undertaken by the UK armed forces. The cost of these operations is reported in terms of the net additional costs, meaning costs over and above those that the MOD would have incurred if the operation had not been undertaken. For example, expenditure on pay, or savings from cancelled training exercises, are deducted from the total cost of the operation.

On this basis, UK operations in Afghanistan cost around £22.9 billion in cash terms, or £32.8 billion in 2024/25 prices. This includes operations Herrick, Toral (the UK’s contribution to NATO’s Resolute Support mission following the end of UK combat operations post-2014) and Pitting (the UK’s evacuation of British nationals and eligible Afghans from Afghanistan).

The cost of initial operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 was between £400 million to £500 million in today’s prices. Expenditure then fell to around £100 million. As the focus of the armed forces shifted to Helmand Province, the cost of operations increased quickly. Between 2005/06 and 2009/10, costs increased by an average of £1.3 billion per year, to a peak of £5.6 billion in 2009/10.

Following the end of UK combat operations in Afghanistan under Operation Herrick and the start of the Resolute Support mission, costs reduced to £100 million per year, on average, between 2015/16 and 2021/22.

Source: Ministry of Defence, Defence departmental resources: 2024; HM Treasury, GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP October 2024 (Autumn Budget 2024)

UK aircraft missions in Afghanistan

During Operation Herrick, the Royal Air Force (RAF) flew 14,467 missions. A mission is a particular task which one or more aircraft has been ordered to complete.

At the beginning of the operation, RAF missions were mostly conducted with the Harrier jet, although by 2009 the Tornado jet and Reaper drone had an equal share of missions. From 2010 onwards, missions were roughly split equally between the Tornado and Reaper.

Afghan refugees in the UK

Between 2021 and the end of June 2024, there were around 87,600 applications for asylum in the UK from Afghan nationals. During the same period, 43,500 asylum applications from Afghans were successful on the initial decision and at least 3,800 more were successful on appeal.

During the same period, 29,700 Afghans were resettled to the UK. Resettlement is the process of transferring recognised refugees directly to the UK, generally from third countries of asylum (that is, countries other than the UK or Afghanistan). Resettlement is separate to the UK’s in-country asylum system. Almost all the resettled Afghans arrived in the UK since 2021, under two bespoke humanitarian schemes.

Taking into account asylum grants and resettlement, Afghans were the most common nationality of people granted humanitarian protection in each year between 2021 and 2023. The approximately 36,000 Afghans admitted during that time accounted for nearly one in three (30%) people granted protection in the UK. These figures exclude Ukrainians: during that time, more Ukrainians arrived (under two emergency schemes) than all other nationalities of people combined.

The trends can be seen in a chart on page 19 of the Library’s asylum statistics briefing.

Other European countries have received a high volume of asylum applications from Afghan nationals in recent years. In 2023, EU countries received 101,000 asylum applications from Afghan nationals, with 51,300 of those being in Germany and 16,700 in France. In the same year, the UK received around 9,700.

Between 2021 and 2023, there were roughly 300,000 asylum applications from Afghans in EU countries, which made them the largest nationality grouping of asylum seekers after Syrians (414,000 applications). The number of applications from Afghans was highest in 2016, at around 180,000, and in 2015 it was also higher than in recent years, at 175,400.