Defence personnel statistics

This note provides information on the strength of the UK Armed Forces. Total UK Armed Forces personnel comprise full time trained and untrained UK Regular Forces, Gurkhas and all Full Time Reserve Service personnel. Long run trend data for UK Regular Forces and the diversity of these forces is also provided.

A summary of the strength of the Reserve forces is provided as is the number of civilian personnel. The final section compares the strength of military forces amongst the NATO countries.

This paper has been replaced by UK Defence Personnel Statistics (CBP-7930) first published on 27 March 2017.