Official Statistics

UK security export statistics 2023

Published 29 January 2025

1. Introduction

This statistical release presents information and trends on the UK security related exports over the period from 2016 to 2023.

These statistics are based on company reports and other research conducted by Westlands Advisory (WA) under contract from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), with their analysis for these statistics covering the years 2020 to 2023. In previous years, the contract was awarded to WA in some years and to Frost & Sullivan in others.

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 Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers Community (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 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.

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 increases in trade values will be partly due to price increases.

1.2 Note on non-comparability with defence export statistics

The 2023 security export statistics are not comparable with the 2023 defence export statistics as the data for security are collected on a revenue basis, as opposed to an orders basis for defence.

2. Executive summary

The key findings from this publication are:

• the total value of UK security exports was £11.0 billion in 2023. This represents a 13% increase from 2022 in nominal prices

• cyber security accounted for 65% of the value of UK security exports in 2023

• cyber security exports were worth £7.2 billion in 2023, an increase of 18% from 2022 in nominal prices

• using an alternative methodology for international exporters, the top 2 security exporters globally in 2023 were estimated to be the United States ($42.6 billion worth of exports) and China ($17.3 billion) 

3. UK security exports

The UK’s security exports were estimated to be £11.0 billion in 2023, an increase of 13% from 2022 in nominal prices.

3.1 Figure 1: UK security exports, 2016 to 2023 (£ billion) 

Year	Value £ billion	Source
2016	4.3	Frost & Sullivan
2017	4.8	Frost & Sullivan
2018	5.2	Westlands Advisory
2019	7.2	Frost & Sullivan
2020	7.4	Westlands Advisory
2021	8.4	Westlands Advisory
2022	9.8	Westlands Advisory
2023	11.0	Westlands Advisory

Source: Frost & Sullivan, Westlands Advisory 

Figure 1 shows historical security export figures between 2016 and 2023. Over this period different contractors have provided this information, and the source for each year is identified in the chart.

Figures for 2020, 2021 and 2022 have been revised by WA as more data have become available since the analysis for the 2022 statistics was carried out. As a result of the inclusion of this additional data, total annual export figures increased to £8.4 billion in 2021, an increase of 1%.

4. UK security exports by technology segment

Revenues from cyber security far exceeded those from any other non-cyber sector at a value of £7.2 billion and accounted for 65% of total UK security export revenue in 2023.

4.1 Figure 2: UK security exports by technology segment, 2023 (£ billion) 

Technology segment	Value £ billion
Cyber security	7.2
Fire equipment	0.7
Data & analytics	0.5
Surveillance	0.5
Access control & identity	0.5
Communications	0.4
Managed services	0.3
Risk services & protection	0.3
Personal protective equipment	0.1
Vehicles	0.1
Command and control	0.1
Disaster management	0.0

Source: Westlands Advisory 

UK cyber security exports increased by 18% in nominal prices from 2022 to 2023 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 the following chart.

4.2 Figure 3: UK security exports by technology category, 2020 to 2023 (£ billion) 

Year	Cyber (value £ billion)	Physical (value £ billion)
2020	4.1	3.2
2021	5.0	3.4
2022	6.1	3.7
2023	7.2	3.9

Source: Westlands Advisory 

UK cyber security exports have also grown considerably over the longer period from 2016 to 2023, as shown in Figure 4. 

4.3 Figure 4: UK cyber security exports, 2016 to 2023 (£ billion) 

Year	Value £ billion	Source
2016	1.5	Frost & Sullivan
2017	1.8	Frost & Sullivan
2018	2.1	Westlands Advisory
2019	4.0	Frost & Sullivan
2020	4.1	Westlands Advisory
2021	5.0	Westlands Advisory
2022	6.1	Westlands Advisory
2023	7.2	Westlands Advisory

Source: Frost & Sullivan, Westlands Advisory 

5. UK security exports by destination region   

The largest regional export market for the UK’s security industry in 2023 was Europe at £5.6 billion, accounting for 50% of all security exports. The cyber and physical security exports breakdown to Europe accounted for 53% and 49%, respectively. The second largest export market was North America at £2.5 billion.

In each region the cyber sector accounts for the 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. 

5.1 Figure 5:  UK cyber and physical security exports by destination region, 2023 (£ billion) 

Destination region	Cyber (value £ billion)	Physical (value £ billion)	Total  (value £ billion)
Europe	3.8	1.9	5.6
North America	1.8	0.8	2.5
Asia Pacific	0.7	0.6	1.3
Middle East	0.6	0.5	1.2
Africa	0.3	0.1	0.4
Latin America	0.1	0.0	0.2
Central Asia	0.0	0.0	0.0

Source: Westlands Advisory 

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.

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 2023. 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, 2023 ($ billion) 

Country	Value $ billion
United States	42.6
China	17.3
France	9.9
Germany	9.0
Japan	7.3
Israel	6.1
South Korea	4.3
Italy	4.1
Spain	3.3
Singapore	2.4

Source: Westlands Advisory 

7. Further information 

UK Defence and Security Exports 

Department for Business and Trade statistics 

8. Contact 

statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk 

Responsible statistician: Maddy Ell, Head of Sector Research and Statistics 

Author: Pio Francesco Medolla 

Media enquiries: 020 7215 2000