Official Statistics

UK security export statistics 2022

Updated 2 January 2024

1. Introduction

This release presents information concerning UK security related exports in 2022 and trends since 2016.

These statistics are based on company reports and other research conducted by Westlands Advisory (WA) under contract from the Department for Business and Trade, with their analysis for these statistics covering the years 2020 to 2022. In previous years, the contract was awarded to WA in some years and to Frost & Sullivan in others. Where years prior to 2020 are shown, the source for each year is indicated.

Data collected are based on Companies House and a variety of other sources, including an online survey and data from security industry associations such as members of the RISC. Further information on how these statistics were created can be found in the methodology paper accompanying this release on the GOV.UK website.

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Its aim is to support users to understand the strengths and limitations of these statistics, ensuring that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is compliant with the quality principles as stated in the Code of Practice for Statistics, and therefore, should help to reduce the risk of misusing data.

This year, due to changes in timescales regarding the procurement of data, these statistics have been released separately to the UK Defence Exports 2022 release.

1.1 Note on inflation

All figures are reported in nominal prices (not adjusted for inflation), unless otherwise stated. We recognise that some of the recent increases in trade values will be partly due to price increases.

1.2 Note on non-comparability with defence export statistics

The 2022 security export statistics are not comparable with the 2022 defence export statistics as the data for security are collected on a revenue basis, as opposed to an orders basis for defence. The 2 publications also use different definitions for some geographical regions. The 2 publications will be reviewed in the future to investigate whether methodologies can be adjusted to make the 2 more comparable.

2. Executive summary

• the total value of UK security exports was £9.8 billion in 2022. This represents an 18.1 percent increase from 2021 in nominal prices
• cyber security accounted for 63.3 percent of the value of UK security exports in 2022
• cyber security exports were worth £6.2 billion in 2022, an increase of 21.8 percent from 2021 in nominal prices
• using an alternative methodology for international exporters, the top 2 security exporters globally in 2022 were estimated to be the United States ($37 billion worth of exports) and China ($17 billion)

3. UK security exports

The UK’s security exports were estimated to be £9.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 18.1 percent from 2021 in nominal prices.

Figure 1 shows historical security export figures between 2016 and 2022. Over this period different contractors have provided this information, and the source for each year is identified in the chart.

Figures for 2020 and 2021 have been revised by WA as more data have become available since the analysis for the 2021 statistics was carried out. As a result of the inclusion of this additional data, total annual export figures increased to £7.4 billion in 2020 and £8.3 billion in 2021, increases of 2.6 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.

For the purposes of this release, the following definition of ‘security export’ has been used:

1. A security export will consist of any overseas sale of a security product, service or solution sold from a UK registered organisation where the revenue is registered in the UK.

2. Sales from UK companies where revenue is reported and attributed to registered offices in other countries will not be counted as an export, as these have not been attributed to the UK. For example, some companies have reported it is their model to have registered entities within countries and allocate revenue, work and sales to these countries and not the UK.

3. Sales to defence organisations (MoD or DoD) are not in scope, as these are considered defence exports rather than security exports.

3.1 Figure 1: UK security exports, 2016 to 2022 (£ billion)

Source: Frost & Sullivan, Westlands Advisory

The bar chart shows the total value of exports in £ billion for each calendar year from 2016 to 2022. The chart shows a mostly steady increase over this time, with every year seeing an increase on the previous year. There was a larger increase from 2018 to 2019 followed by a smaller increase from 2019 to 2022.

In the years 2016, 2017 and 2019, the source was Frost & Sullivan. In all other years, the source was Westlands Advisory.

4. UK security exports by technology segment

Revenues from cyber security far exceeded those from any single non-cyber sector at a value of £6.2 billion and accounted for 63.3 percent of total UK security export revenue in 2022.

4.1 Figure 2: UK security exports by technology segment, 2022 (£ billion)

Source: Westlands Advisory

The bar chart shows the total value of exports in £ billion for each technology segment in 2022. The value for cyber security is far larger than the next largest segment, which is Fire Security at £0.65 billion.

UK cyber security exports increased by 21.8 percent in nominal prices from 2021 to 2022 and have seen greater growth since 2020 than physical security exports. All technology segments other than Cyber Security are grouped together under the “Physical” category in later charts.

Figure 3 shows UK cyber and physical security exports from 2020 to 2022.

UK cyber security exports have also grown considerably over the longer period from 2016 to 2022, as shown in Figure 4.

4.2 Figure 3: UK security exports by technology category, 2020 to 2022 (£ billion)

Source: Westlands Advisory

The bar chart shows separate values for cyber and physical exports in each of the years from 2020 to 2022. Cyber exports grew considerably more than physical exports, with the difference between them increasing over this period.

4.3 Figure 4: UK cyber security exports, 2016 to 2021 (£ billion)

Source: Frost & Sullivan, Westlands Advisory

The bar chart shows the value of cyber exports in £ billion for each calendar year from 2016 to 2022. The chart shows a steady increase from 2016 to 2018, a large increase from 2018 to 2019 and then a smoother upward trend from 2019 to 2022.

In the years 2016, 2017 and 2019, the source was Frost & Sullivan. In all other years, the source was Westlands Advisory.

5. UK security exports by destination region

The largest regional export market for the UK’s security industry in 2022 was Europe at £5.0 billion, accounting for 53.8 percent of all cyber security exports and 47.1 percent of all physical security exports. The second largest export market was North America at £2.1 billion.

Figure 5 shows the value of regional security exports in 2022 split into cyber and physical categories. In each region the cyber sector accounts for a majority of exports by value and in Europe, the UK’s largest regional market, the value of cyber security exports was almost double that of physical security exports.

Note that the value of cyber and physical security exports in each region is based on the primary offering of each exporting business, as proportions of revenue by technology are not available at the regional level. For this reason, the sum of cyber and physical exports in each region may not equal regional totals exactly.

5.1 Figure 5: UK cyber and physical security exports by destination region, 2022 (£ billion)

Source: Westlands Advisory

The stacked bar chart shows the values of cyber and physical exports in £ billion for each destination region in 2022. The combined value for Europe is more than twice the combined value for North America, with another considerable gap between North America and Asia Pacific.

6. Estimated Rest of World security exports

The methodology used to estimate the values of other countries’ security exports is different to that used to estimate UK exports, and UK and Rest of World figures are therefore not comparable with one another. For more details, please refer to the methodology and quality report published alongside this release.

WA have estimated the values of other countries’ security exports in 2022. The largest non-UK security exporter was the United States by a considerable margin, followed by China, France and Germany. The 10 largest non-UK exporters are shown in Figure 6.

6.1 Figure 6: estimated value of Rest of World security exports by exporting country, 2022 ($ billion)

Source: Westlands Advisory

The bar chart shows the estimated value of security exports in $ billion for the top ten countries (excluding the UK) in 2022. The United States is substantially ahead of China, which in turn is substantially ahead of France.

7. Further information

UK Defence and Security Exports

Department for Business and Trade statistics

8. Contact

statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Responsible statistician: Jonathan Lewis, Head of Business Opportunities and Sector Statistics.