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UK armed forces biannual diversity statistics: April 2025

Published 12 June 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-april-2025/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-april-2025

This statistical release presents information relating to the Gender, Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion, Age and Sexual Orientation of Military Personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). This publication meets the Department’s obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty to provide information on its workforce identified by the Equality Act 2010.

Information is provided on the number of Military Personnel in (defined as the Strength), joining (Intake) and leaving (Outflow) the UK Armed Forces. Statistics are included for UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) personnel. Further statistics can be found in the Excel tables which accompany this report.

Some of the statistics previously published in the following publications can now be found in this release:

1.1 Gender

▲11.9% Female representation in the UK Regular Forces
as at 1 April 2025
This has increased by 0.2 percentage points compared with 1 April 2024 (11.7%)
►15.9% Female representation in the Future Reserves 2020
as at 1 April 2025
This has remained consistent with 1 April 2024 (15.9%)
▼11.4% Of total intake into the combined UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 was female
in the 12 months to 31 March 2025
This has decreased by 0.2 percentage points compared with the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 (11.6%)

1.2 Ethnicity

▲12.2% Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) representation in the UK Regular Forces
as at 1 April 2025
This has increased by 1.0 percentage points compared with 1 April 2024 (11.2%)
▲6.8% Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) representation in the Future Reserves 2020
as at 1 April 2025
This has increased by 0.4 percentage points compared with 1 April 2024 (6.4%)
▲16.5% Of total intake into the combined UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 was ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)
in the 12 months to 31 March 2025
This has increased by 1.2 percentage points compared with the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 (15.3%)

Responsible Statistician: Tri-Service Head of Branch

Email: Analysis-Tri-Hd@mod.gov.uk

Further information/mailing list: Analysis-Tri-Service@mod.gov.uk

Background Quality Report: Background Quality Report

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2. Introduction

This publication contains diversity information on the Strength, Intake and Outflow of the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) population, both overall and for each of the Services, including the Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM), Army and Royal Air Force (RAF). Statistics are for Trained and Untrained personnel unless otherwise stated. Ethnic origin and religion data are self-reported on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) database. Any percentages or figures quoted within this report relate to those with a known ethnic origin, religion or nationality unless otherwise stated.

Detailed statistics and historic time series can be found in the Excel tables which accompany this report; further historic statistics will be added in due course. In the meantime, historic statistics can be found in the following archived publications:

The glossary contains definitions of terminology used in this publication.

A calendar of upcoming MOD statistical releases can be found on GOV.UK

Accredited Official Statistics publication

Accredited Official Statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These Accredited Official Statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2023. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘Accredited Official Statistics’. Accreditation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

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Once statistics have been designated as Accredited Official Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed. Further details about how this report has been developed since its confirmation as an Accredited Official Statistic can be found in the Background Quality Report.

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2.1 Background

Currently, there are no publicly declared Armed Forces recruitment targets for women and ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) beyond April 2020.

Defence remains dedicated to achieving a more diverse workforce to promote a diverse and inclusive culture, allowing everyone to reach their potential, and ensuring the Armed Forces better reflect the society they serve. Defence is undertaking a wide range of activities to increase the number of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) and Female recruits into the Armed Forces. Statistics on ethnic origin are self-declared by personnel and are as recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) database. Please see Excel tables 29 and 30 and the Ministry of Defence Outcome Delivery Plan: 2021 to 2022 for more information.

UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non-Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Unless otherwise stated, includes Trained and Untrained personnel.

Intake to UK Regular Forces comprises new entrants, re-entrants, direct Trained entrants (including Professionally Qualified Officers) and Intake from the reserves. It excludes all movements within the Regular Forces; including flows from the Untrained to Trained strength, transfers between Services and flows from Ranks to Officer due to promotion.

Future Reserves 2020 includes Volunteer Reserves who are mobilised, HRR and volunteer reserve personnel serving on Additional Duties Commitment (ADC) or FTRS contracts. Sponsored Reserves who provide a more cost-effective solution than Volunteer Reserve are also included in the Army Reserve FR20. Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) and University Officer Cadets and Regular Reservists are excluded.

Intake to Future Reserves 2020 Forces comprises new entrants, Regular to Reserve transfers, Reserve re-joiners, and Reserve personnel joining from another part of the Reserves that are not included in the FR20 target population.

2.2 Female Intake

Figure 1 shows that since the 12 months ending 31 March 2016 (11.2%), the proportion of Females joining the UK Regular Forces and Future Reserve 2020 increased until the 12 months ending 31 March 2022 (13.4%). After that it has been decreasing and has reached 11.4 per cent as at 12 months ending 31 March 2025. This is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points, from the 12 months ending 31 March 2024.

Figure 1: Female Intake for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

2.3 Ethnic minorities Intake

A total of 97.5 per cent of Intake into the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 combined, had a known ethnicity on Intake in the 12 months to 31 March 2025.

Figure 2 shows that since the 12 months ending 31 March 2016, the proportion of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel joining the UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 has increased by 10.8 percentage points from 5.7 per cent, to its current position at 16.5 per cent. This is an increase of 1.2 percentage points, from 15.3 per cent captured at the 12 month period ending 31 March 2025.

Figure 2: Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) Intake for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

The recent increase in the percentage of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel joining the UK Regulars and Future Reserves 2020 is mirrored in the increase in the number of personnel joining the Armed Forces from Irish and Commonwealth countries. The change in Commonwealth Intake is due to a policy change which is explained further in Figure 3 and related paragraphs.

Figure 3 shows that in the 12 months ending 31 March 2025, ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) Intake to the UK Regular Forces from Irish and Commonwealth countries has increased by 260 personnel when compared against the same 12 month period last year ending 31 March 2024.

Figure 3: Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) intake to UK Regular Forces from Irish and Commonwealth countries for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

In July 2013, the MOD re-imposed a five year UK residency criteria for Commonwealth citizens wishing to join the Armed Forces, having previously waived the criteria in 1998. In May 2016 a limited waiver of the residency was introduced to allow the recruitment of up 200 Commonwealth citizens per annum into skill shortage roles.

On 5 November 2018, the MOD announced that it had now removed the five-year residency criteria for up to 1,350 personnel per year. This announcement may have caused the subsequent increase in the commonwealth Intake up to 31 March 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/armed-forces-to-step-up-commonwealth-recruitment). The Army has approval to recruit soldiers from overseas with a focus on Commonwealth countries. In 2020, COVID-19 travel restrictions affected the ability of individuals to travel to the UK and join the Army. This is no longer the case and the intake in ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) has increased when compared with the numbers achieved in recent years.

3. Gender

3.1 UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 Strengths

For full definitions on UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020, see the glossary.

At 1 March 2025, 11.9 per cent of the UK Regular Forces was Female (16,300 personnel). Figure 4 below shows that the RAF has the greatest proportion of Female personnel in the UK Regular Forces. The nature of the roles is different in each of the Services, which is partly explained by restrictions on the historic roles available to women. It was announced these restrictions would be lifted in 2016 (see Background, Section 8.3).

In comparison, 15.9 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 was Female (5,080 personnel), 4.0 percentage points higher than the UK Regular Forces. Figure 4 shows that the RAF continues to have the greatest Female representation in the Future Reserves 2020.

Figure 4: Proportion of Females in the UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 as at 1 March 2025

RAF had the highest proportion of Females in UK Regular Forces with 16.1 percent followed by Naval Service with 11.3 percent and Army at 10.4 percent. RAF Reserve also had the highest proportion of Females in the Future Reserves 2020 with 24.3 percent followed by Maritime Reserve and Army Reserve, at 15.0 percent each.

At 1 March 2025 there was a greater proportion of Female Officers in the Future Reserves 2020 (18.6 per cent) than the UK Regular Forces (14.9 percent). Furthermore, Future Reserves 2020 has a higher Female representation of Officers in every Service as shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Proportion of Female Officers in the UK Regulars and Future Reserves 2020 as at 1 March 2025

The proportion of Female Officers in the Navy Reserve, Army Reserve and RAF Reserve have all decreased, as at 1 March 2025 compared with, 1 March 2024. The proportion of Female Officer in all 3 Reserve services now stand at 18.6 percent, 17.9 per cent and 23.8 percent respectively.

Figure 6: UK Regular Forces spilt by Gender and NATO Rank as at 1 March 2025

Figure 6 shows the representation of Females in the UK Regular Forces by NATO rank. Within Other Ranks, there is a similar proportion of Females across the Senior (10.6 percent) and Junior (11.4 percent) NATO ranks. However, within the Officers, Female representation in Junior Officer ranks is 5.7 percentage points higher than the Senior Officers.

The proportion of Female UK Regular Forces is the lowest in Senior Officer roles, at 9.3 per cent, and the highest in Junior Officer roles at 15.0 per cent.

3.2 Intake and Outflow

Intake is defined as the number of personnel joining the Strength, and Outflow is the number leaving.

UK Regular Forces

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, 1,420 Female personnel joined the UK Regular Forces - 10.5 percent of total intake. This has decreased by 0.4 percentage points compared with the 12 months to 31 March 2024 (10.9 percent). Intake of Female personnel is higher for Officers (16.5 percent), than for Other Ranks (9.9 per cent). In the 12 months to 31 March 2024, Female Intake was:

  • 420 personnel (12.6 percent) into the RN/RM
  • 700 personnel (8.7 percent) into the Army
  • 300 personnel (14.6 percent) into the RAF

Figure 7 below shows the number of Females, joining and leaving the UK Regular forces. Female personnel accounted for 9.1 percent of all Outflow from the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 31 March 2025. Female intake was slightly higher than outflow (80 Personnel) in the 12 months ending 31 March 2025.

Figure 7: Female Intake to, Outflow and Net flow from the UK Regular Forces for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

Future Reserves 2020

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, 540 Female personnel joined the Future Reserves 2020. This is 14.5 percent of total Intake.

In the 12 months to 30 September 2024, Female Intake was:

  • 60 personnel (10.9 percent) into the FR20 Maritime Reserve population
  • 360 personnel (13.0 percent) into the FR20 Army Reserve population
  • 120 personnel (28.0 percent) into the FR20 RAF Reserve population

Figure 8 shows that the number of Females that joined the Future Reserves 2020 in the 12 months to 31 March 2025 was 540 personnel which is lower than the 620 Personnel who outflowed. Male Outflow was also higher than Intake in the same period.

Figure 8: Female Intake to and Outflow from the Future Reserves 2020 for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

4. Ethnic Origin and Nationality

4.1 UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 Strengths

Declaration of ethnic origin is not mandatory for Armed Forces personnel. These statistics relate to personnel with a known ethnicity. At 1 April 2025, the percentage of personnel who declared an ethnicity was:

UK Regular Forces 99.3%
Future Reserves 2020 99.0%

Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel accounted for 12.2 per cent of the UK Regular Forces (16,590 personnel), at 1 April 2025. Since 2009, Gurkha personnel have been able to transfer into the Army, and the number of Trade Trained personnel reporting a Nepalese Nationality increased from 520 as at 1 April 2012 to 880 as at 1 October 2019 and subsequently declined to 570 as at 1 April 2022. Since 1 April 2022 the number of Trade Trained personnel reporting a Nepalese Nationality has since been increasing, and is currently at 800, almost of all whom are UK Regular personnel in the Army, see Table 5a.

Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel accounted for 6.8 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 (2,150 personnel), as at 1 April 2025.

For both the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020, the Army and Army Reserve represent the largest parts of the UK Armed forces and have the greatest proportion of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel, accounting for approximately 79.7 per cent of all ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel.

As at 1 April 2025, 94.1 per cent of the UK Regular Forces and 98.9 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 had a UK Nationality. The difference in Nationality between the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 can partially be explained by different eligibility requirements.

Figure 9: Ethnicity of UK Regular and Future Reserves 2020 Personnel as at 1 April 2025

At 1 April 2025, ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel represented:

  • 3.6 per cent of Officers and 14.3 per cent of Other Ranks in the UK Regular Forces.
  • 4.8 per cent of Officers and 7.4 per cent of Other Ranks in the Future Reserves 2020.

As shown in Figure 10 43.4 per cent of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel in UK regular forces did not have UK Nationality compared to only 7.1 per cent of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel in the Future Reserves 2020.

Figure 10: Percentage of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) and White personnel with UK and Non-UK Nationalities as at 1 April 2025

4.2 Intake and Outflow

UK Regular Forces

Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel accounted for 18.6 per cent of Intake into the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 31 March 2025. In the 12 months ending 31 March 2025, the proportion of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel of a Non-UK Nationality joining the UK Regular Forces has decreased from 63.6 per cent to 63.2 per cent against the same time period last year.

Figure 11: Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) Intake to and Outflow from UK Regular Forces for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel represented 8.3 per cent of Outflow from the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 31 March 2025. Outflow has been generally increasing for ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) since the 12 months ending 30 September 2019. Prior to this, there was a decreasing trend since the 12 months ending 31 March 2014 (Figure 11).

Future Reserves 2020

Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) personnel represent 8.5 per cent of Intake in the 12 months ending 31 March 2025, this has increased by 0.7 percentage points since the 12 months ending 31 March 2024. Figure 12 shows that since the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 the proportion of Intake who are ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) into:

  • The FR20 Maritime Reserve population has decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 3.5 per cent
  • The FR20 Army Reserve population has increased by 1.3 percentage points to 9.8 per cent
  • The FR20 RAF Reserve population has decreased by 1.0 percentage points to 6.4 per cent

Army has the largest proportion of ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) Intake.

Figure 12: Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) Intake to the Future Reserves 2020 by Service as at 31 March 2025

5. Religion

5.1 UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 Strengths

Declaration of Religion is not mandatory for Armed Forces personnel. These statistics only relate to personnel who have made a declaration. At 1 April 2025 the proportion of personnel who had made a declaration was:

UK Regular Forces 99.1%
Future Reserves 2020 98.9%

At 1 April 2025, 53.9 per cent of the UK Regular Forces and 64.7 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 declared a Christian religion. Both have seen a decrease in the last year of 1.5 and 1.2 percentage points respectively, which is also in line with the long term decreasing trend.

Figure 13: Religion of the UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 as at 1 April 2025

Figure 14 shows the percentage of UK Regular and Future Reserve 2020 personnel who declare “No Religion” on JPA. In the UK Regulars it has increased from 15.5 per cent as at 1 October 2012 to 40.5 per cent at 1 April 2025. Similarly, for the reserves it has increased from 17.7 per cent as at 1 October 2012 to 31.8 per cent at 1 April 2025.

Figure 14: UK Regular and Future Reserves 2020 declaring no religion as at 1 April 2025

6. Age

6.1 UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 Strengths

Average age statistics are calculated using the mean. Age is age at last birthday. Average ages as at 1 April 2025 were:

Total Officer Other Ranks
UK Regular Forces 31 37 30
Future Reserves 2020 39 44 37

As at 1 April 2025, 25.8 per cent of the UK Regular Forces and 8.3 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 were under 25 years old. In the last year, this has increased by 0.5 percentage points in the UK Regulars and decreased by 0.2 percentage points in the Future Reserves 2020. Of this, 7.1 per cent of the UK Regular Forces Officers and 4.2 per cent of the Future Reserves 2020 Officers were under 25 years old, Other Ranks had 30.5 per cent in the UK Regular Forces and 9.6 per cent in the Future Reserve 2020 under the age of 25.

Figure 15 below indicates that Officers in the UK Regulars are younger than Officers in the Future Reserves 2020. As at 1 April 2025 the average age for Officers in the UK Regular Forces was 37 years old compared to the Future Reserves 2020 where the average age was 44 years old.

Figure 16 below shows that the average age of Other Ranks in the UK Regular Forces is also younger than the Future Reserves 2020. As at 1 April 2025 the average age for the UK Regular Forces Other Ranks was 7 years younger than the Future Reserves 2020.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025, 60.6% of those joining the Future Reserves 2020 had previously served in the UK Armed Forces (Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics, table 7b). This explains, in part, why the age profile is higher for the Future Reserves 2020.

Figure 15: Age of Officers in the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 as at 1 April 2025

Figure 16: Age of Other Ranks in the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020 as at 1 April 2025.

6.2 Intake and Outflow

In the 12 months ending 31 March 2025, 9.7 per cent of Intake to the UK Regular Forces were Officers (1,300 personnel). Figure 17 shows that, of this total, 8.8 per cent were aged 30 and over and the remaining 92.2 per cent were aged 18 to 29. UK Regular Officer Intake age profiles are heavily influenced by personnel joining having left higher education, with 65.1 per cent of all officer Intake occurring between ages 20 and 24. Similarly, UK Regular Other Ranks Intake is heavily influenced by those leaving secondary or tertiary education with 50.7 per cent of UK Regular Other Ranks joining under the age of 20.

In the 12 months ending 31 March 2025, 20.2 per cent of Intake to the Future Reserves 2020 were Officers (750 personnel).

Figure 17: UK Regulars intake by Age for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

The first point at which Regular personnel can leave voluntarily is normally after 4 years of Service for personnel aged over 18. Each Service has slightly different guidelines.

Figure 18: UK Regulars outflow by Age for the 12 months ending 31 March 2025

7. Sexual Orientation

Declaration of sexual orientation is not mandatory for Armed Forces personnel. These statistics relate to personnel with a known Sexual Orientation. As at 1 April 2025, the percentage of personnel who declared a Sexual Orientation was:

UK Regular Forces 32.4%
Future Reserves 2020 10.7%

7.1 UK Regular Forces

As at 1 April 2025, 32.4 per cent of Regular service personnel declared a Sexual Orientation. There were 35.1 per cent of Officers and 31.7 per cent of Other Ranks declaring a Sexual Orientation.

Figure 19 below shows a service breakdown of the overall declaration rate across the UK Regular Forces, with Army having the highest rate (40.5 per cent), followed by Royal Navy/Royal Marines and RAF at 24.1 and 21.4 per cent respectively.

7.2 Future Reserves 2020

As at 1 April 2025, 10.7 per cent of FR20 service personnel have declared a Sexual Orientation. The declaration rate is higher amongst Officers (18.5 per cent) when compared with Other Ranks (8.2 per cent).

Figure 19 shows the breakdown of the declaration rate by each service. FR20 Maritime Reserve have the highest proportion (17.4 per cent), followed by FR20 RAF Reserves and FR20 Army Reserves at 14.3 and 9.5 per cent respectively.

There is a larger difference between the declaration rates of the UK Regular Forces and the Future Reserves 2020, than is seen between the services.

Figure 19: Sexual Orientation declaration rate across UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 split by service as at 1 April 2025

The sexual orientation breakdowns, recorded on JPA, will be provided in future edition of this publication once declaration rates reach a high enough percentage to be representative.

8. Background and Context

Diversity statistics are reported to meet the Department’s obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty,(Public Sector Equality Duty: guidance for public authorities) to provide information on its workforce in relation to the protected characteristics identified by the Equality Act 2010.

MOD publicises the importance placed on the Armed Forces being appropriately representative of the diverse society they exist to defend and states that ‘operational effectiveness depends on cohesion and teamwork, which are enhanced by treating everyone fairly, with dignity and respect’.

8.1 Army Trained Strength

On 29th June 2016, the MOD announced that the Army will in future plan to use Regular and Reserve Phase 1 trained personnel in response to crises within the UK. Following this, the term ‘Trained Strength’ will include all Army personnel trained in the core function of their Service (i.e. those who have completed Phase 1 training). The MOD has consulted on these changes and the resultant impact it will have on this publication and a consultation response was published on 7 November 2016.

Army personnel who have completed Phase 1 training (basic Service training) but not Phase 2 training (trade training), are now considered Trained personnel. This change will enable the Army to meet the SDSR 15 commitment to improve support to UK resilience. The Trained Strength definition for the Royal Navy, RAF, Maritime Reserve and RAF Reserves has not changed, reflecting the requirement for their personnel to complete Phase 2 training to be able to fulfil the core function of their respective Services.

8.2 Recent changes to the structure of the UK Armed Forces

In order to meet the manpower reduction targets set out in SDSR 2010, the Three Month Exercise (3ME) and Army 2020 (A2020), a redundancy programme coupled with adjusted recruiting (intake) and contract extensions were set. The redundancy programme is now complete.

On 23 November 2015, the MOD published the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015. SDSR 2015 outlines plans to uplift the size of the Regular Armed Forces, setting targets for a strength of 82,000 for the Army, and increasing the Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM) and RAF by a total of 700 personnel. The SDSR 2015 Defence Key Facts booklet announced new targets for 2020 for each of the Services. In parallel, there have been increases in the Reserve populations; the Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) programme aims to increase the size of the Reserve Forces. Further personnel statistics and information on these changes can be found in the Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics.

8.3 Gender

The former Prime Minister announced on 8 July 2016 that the exemption on women serving in ground close combat (GCC) roles would be lifted, with roles opening up on an incremental basis starting with the Royal Armoured Corps. The decision to lift the exclusion was on the basis of equality of opportunity and maximising talent. Roles that were previously excluded to women were the Royal Marines General Service, the Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps, the Infantry and the Royal Air Force Regiment. From November 2016 women are able to join the Royal Armoured Corps, both Regular and Reserve. The RAF brought this forward, and the RAF Regiment opened to women on 1 September 2017. The remaining ground close combat roles opened to women in late 2018, after additional health mitigations were put in place. There are no quotas for women joining GCC roles and applications are treated in the same way as for all other roles. Additionally, there has been no lowering of standards for women joining GCC roles. Since 2019 all roles with the Armed Forces have been open to women, with the exception of Gurkhas. The Armed Forces are exempt from elements of the employment provisions of the Equality Act 2010 for reasons of combat effectiveness.

8.4 Ethnic origin and Nationality

Under the SDSR 2010, one of the areas reviewed was the Commonwealth recruitment rules. The MOD reintroduced the five-years UK residency requirement for future new recruits from Commonwealth countries in July 2013. This did not affect personnel already serving or going through the recruitment process at the time of the announcement, those from the Republic of Ireland or for the Brigade of Gurkhas.

In November 2018, MOD removed the five year UK residency requirement for Commonwealth citizens wishing to apply to join the Regular Armed Forces, increasing recruitment to up to 1,350 per annum across Defence. This five year UK residency requirement was imposed in July 2013, although a limited waiver occurred in May 2016, allowing up to 200 Commonwealth personnel to be recruited per annum to fill skill shortage roles.  Similarly to the July 2013 and May 2016 changes, the November 18 change was announced via a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS). Further information on residency rules can be found in the links below:

Information on the nationality eligibility criteria for each of the Services is available at:

9. Further Information

9.1 Symbols

Symbol Description
|| discontinuity in time series
* not applicable
.. not available
- zero
[c] 5 or fewer
p Provisional
e Estimate
r Revised

Italic figures are used for percentages and other rates, except where otherwise indicated.

9.2 Rounding

Figures in this publication (apart from some gender statistics) have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards. For example, a value of “25” would be rounded down to “20” and a value of “15” would be rounded up to “20”.

Additionally, totals and sub-totals are rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts. Percentages are calculated from unrounded data and presented to one decimal place.

The MOD Disclosure Control and Rounding policy is published on GOV.UK.

9.3 Revisions

Corrections to the published statistics will be made if errors are found, or if figures change as a result of improvements to methodology or changes to definitions. When making corrections, we will follow the Ministry of Defence Statistics Revisions and Corrections Policy. All corrected figures will be identified by the symbol “r”, and an explanation will be given of the reason for and size of the revision. Corrections which would have a significant impact on the utility of the statistics will be corrected as soon as possible, by reissuing the publication. Minor errors will also be corrected, but for convenience these corrections may be timed to coincide with the next annual release of the publication.

9.4 Useful definitions

No religion includes personnel who have self-identified as having no religion on JPA, including personnel declaring themselves as Agnostic, Atheist and Secularist. This does not include personnel with an unrecorded religion.

UK Nationality includes any individuals whose nationality is recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) database as Anguilla, Bermuda, British, British Hong Kong, British Overseas Territories, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands or Turks and Caicos Islands. More details can be found on the gov.uk website.

A full glossary is available at the gov.uk website.

9.5 Contact Us

Analysis (Tri-Service) welcome feedback on our statistical products. If you have any comments or questions about this publication or about our statistics in general, you can contact us as follows:

Responsible statistician: Tri-Service Head of Branch
Email: Analysis-Tri-Hd@mod.gov.uk

If you wish to correspond by mail, our postal address is:

Analysis (Tri-Service) Ministry of Defence, Main Building Floor 3 Zone M Whitehall London SW1A 2HB

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