FOI release

Statistical data about SIA licence holders: 2020 to 2025

Published 31 March 2026

Request

Please provide the information requested below for the period 2020 to 2025.

1. Demographic details of licensed individuals

Please provide:

• sex and gender statistics by regions and nations
• an ethnic breakdown by regions and nations
• a breakdown of location frequency (ideally by first half of postcode, but open to alternatives)

2. Frequencies of licensed individuals

Please provide:

• a quarterly headcount
• a quarterly number for new registrations
• a quarterly number for cancellations and expiries of licences

3. Frequencies of licensed individuals’ profile characteristics

Feel free to exclude any group with a sufficiently low frequency as to be identifiable (i.e. only 3 people born in a particular year or with a particular passport).

Please provide the frequency for:

• licensed individuals’ birthdays by month (i.e. how many born in January, February, etc.)
• licensed individuals’ birthdays by year (i.e. how many born in 1980, 1981, etc.)
• licensed individuals’ nationalities (i.e. how many British, Irish, etc.)

4. Modalities of licensed individuals’ profile characteristics

Please provide:

• the top 5 most common first names for licensed individuals
• the top 5 most common last names for licensed individuals

Response

We can confirm that we partially hold this information.

We have attached a CSV file containing the relevant data for each request for information set out above. Each CSV file contains data as of 22 January 2026.

For confidentiality reasons, data counts below 10 have been suppressed and presented as under 10.

Where applicants did not participate in the protected characteristics questionnaire, this data has been collated and reflected as ‘unknown’.

The entries showing ‘foreign’ refer to regions outside of the United Kingdom.

1. Demographic details of licensed individuals

Sex and gender statistics by regions and nations

As part of the licence application process that licence applicants must complete before submitting their application, we collect data on the applicant’s ‘Gender’. The available options are ‘male’ and ‘female’, and the resulting data is referred to as ‘Gender’ and included in our monthly ‘SIA licence demographics’ reports: SIA licence holders - GOV.UK.

There are 2 CSV files showing data relating to an applicant’s ‘gender’ broken down by region and nationality.

Ethnic breakdown by regions and nations

There are 2 CSV files showing data relating to ethnic breakdowns by regions and nationality.

Breakdown of location frequency

This CSV file shows data relating to location frequency.

2. Frequencies of licensed individuals

Quarterly headcount

This CSV file shows data relating to the quarterly headcount for the calendar years 2020 to 2025.

Quarterly new registrations

This CSV file shows data relating to the quarterly new registrations for the calendar years 2020 to 2025.

We have interpreted the word ‘registrations’ to mean licences granted over the specified period (2020 to 2025) including both first-time applicants and returning applicants (renewals).

Quarterly cancellations and expiry of licences

There are 2 CSV files showing data relating to quarterly expired and revoked licences for the calendar years 2020 to 2025.

Once a licence is granted, a licence holder cannot cancel a licence. We have therefore interpreted the word ‘cancellations’ to mean revocations in accordance with our published criteria Get Licensed. Page 68 refers to the chapter on revoking a licence.

3. Frequencies of licensed individuals’ profile characteristics

Frequency of licensed individuals’ birthdays by month

This CSV file shows data relating to the number of licence holders born between January and December.

Frequency of licensed individuals’ birthdays by year

This part of your request is exempt under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as the information is readily accessible within the public domain.

The up to date data showing the number of licence holders aged between 18 and 100 can be accessed here: SIA licence holders.

Frequency of licensed individuals by nationality

This part of your request is exempt under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as the information is readily accessible within the public domain.

The up to date data showing the nationality of all current licence holders can be accessed here: SIA licence holders.

4. Modalities of licensed individuals’ profile characteristics

Top 5 most common first names of licensed individuals

This CSV file shows data relating to the most common first names of licensed individuals.

Top 5 most common last names of licensed individuals

This CSV file shows data relating to the most common names of licensed individuals.

[Ref: FOI 0585]