UK defence personnel statistics
How many people serve in the UK armed forces, how diverse are they, and how many people are joining and leaving?
This page is a short summary of the full PDF report UK defence personnel statistics.
The appendix data tables (Excel file) published alongside this briefing contain the armed forces strength data used in full.
Personnel strength measuresThere are a number of different ways to measure the size of the UK armed forces.
Three different measures are used in this briefing:
- Full-time trained and untrained strength – this comprises all full-time trained and untrained members of the UK Regular Forces, Gurkhas, and full-time reserve service personnel.
- Full-time trained/trade-trained strength – this comprises all full-time personnel who have completed phases 1 and 2 of initial training.
- UK Regular Forces – the main body of permanent personnel in the UK armed forces (both trained and untrained). This measure excludes Gurkhas, reservists, and other personnel categories.
On 1 April 2026, the total size of the full-time UK armed forces (trained and untrained) was around 148,600 personnel. Most personnel were in the Army (55%) with the remainder split fairly equally between the Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM, 23%) and the Royal Air Force (RAF, 22%). The numbers of personnel in each service branch are shown in the chart below.
Source: Ministry of Defence, Quarterly service personnel statistics: 1 April 2026, Table 3b
Trained strengthPersonnel targets are based on the full-time trained strength of the RN/RM and the RAF, and the full-time trade-trained strength of the Army. The most recent targets were set in the 2021 Defence Command Paper.
All three branches of the UK armed forces are currently below their target size: the Army by 3%, the RN/RM by 7% and the RAF by 12%. Overall, the UK armed forces were around 8,460 personnel (6%) below target.
Source: Ministry of Defence, Quarterly service personnel statistics: 1 April 2026, Table 3c
The 2025 Strategic Defence Review recommended that there should be no further reductions in the number of regular personnel, and that personnel numbers should increase, “when funding allows”.
In a statement on the review, the then Defence Secretary John Healy said that “reversing the decline will take time”, but that the government was aiming to increase the Army to at least 76,000 full-time soldiers in the next Parliament. This ambition was reaffirmed in the Defence Investment Plan (published in June 2026).
Joiners and leaversBetween financial years 1999/00 and 2025/26, there were only seven years when the number of personnel joining the UK Regular Forces was higher than the number leaving.
In 2025/26, there was an increase in the overall number of Regular Forces personnel, with around 980 more personnel joining than leaving. This followed a net decrease of 1,140 personnel in 2024/25.
Most personnel who leave the armed forces choose to do so voluntarily. In 2025/26, 5.0% of trained personnel voluntarily left the UK Regular Forces before the end of their agreed engagement or commission period. This is down from 5.9% in 2024/25 and was lower than the rates recorded in the years immediately preceding the covid-19 pandemic.
The 2025 Strategic Defence Review described the armed forces as facing a “workforce crisis” as a result of recruitment and retention issues. The Armed Forces Pay Review Body has since reported “modest improvements” in both recruitment and retention, but it said that trained strengths across all three services remain “critically short of requirement”.
DiversityOn 1 April 2026, there were 16,660 women in the UK Regular Forces, accounting for 12.1% of the total trained and untrained strength. The proportion of women in the Reserve Forces was higher at 15.8%.
Women were better represented among officers than among other ranks in the UK Regular Forces: on 1 April 2026, women held 15.2% of officer positions. However, representation was lower at the most senior ranks, with women accounting for 11.0% of officers at rank OF-6 (equivalent to a brigadier in the Army) and above.
In December 2021, the government announced a new target for women to account for 30% of intake by 2030. In the year to 31 March 2026, women made up 11.0% of total intake to the UK Regular Forces.
Around 17,570 Regular Forces personnel (12.8%) self-identified as belonging to a minority ethnic group (compared with an estimated 21% of the UK working-age population). The Army had the highest proportion of personnel from minority ethnic groups (18.1%), followed by the RN/RM (7.8%) and the RAF (5.2%).
Minority ethnic groups were further underrepresented among officer ranks, accounting for 3.9% of officers in the UK Regular Forces on 1 April 2026.
There is currently no publicly stated armed forces recruitment target for minority ethnicities. In the year to 31 March 2026, 15.6% of total intake to the UK Regular Forces were from minority ethnic groups. This is down slightly from 18.6% in the year to 31 March 2025, but substantially higher than the proportion recruited in the year to 31 March 2023 (9.7%).
Strength of the Reserve ForcesThe Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) programme, started under the coalition government (2010 to 2015), set out plans to increase the trained strength of the reserves, expand the circumstances in which reservists could be mobilised and deployed, and better integrate the Reserve Forces with the Regular Forces.
FR20 set targets for the trained strength of the Volunteer Reserves. Volunteer Reserves are civilians who train on a part-time basis alongside Regular Forces personnel, and may be called upon to serve full-time when required.
Between October 2013 and April 2026, the FR20 trained strength increased by 26% from 22,880 to 28,890 personnel. However, only the RAF Reserve has achieved its FR20 trained strength target. The total number of FR20 personnel has declined in recent years, from a peak of 33,010 in July 2020.
The 2025 Strategic Defence Review recommended a 20% increase in the active Reserve Forces, “when funding allows”.
Location of personnelOn 1 April 2026, 96% of UK Regular Forces personnel were stationed in the United Kingdom.
Of the 5,570 personnel stationed overseas, around two thirds (66%) were based in Europe. A further 13% were stationed in North America, 6% in North Africa and the Middle East, 5% in Asia, and 5% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Local area dataStatistics on the stationed location of UK Regular Forces personnel are available by region and local authority as at 1 April each year. Information on intake to the UK Regular Forces by parliamentary constituency is also available from the same publication.
Further readingCommons Library, Strategic Defence Review 2025: Armed forces personnel
Ministry of Defence, Quarterly service personnel statistics
Ministry of Defence, UK armed forces biannual diversity statistics