Official Statistics

UK security export statistics 2024

Published 16 December 2025

1. Introduction

This statistical release presents information and trends on UK security-related exports over the period 2016 to 2024.

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 2021 to 2024. In previous years, the contract was awarded to WA in some years and to Frost & Sullivan in others.

Data is collected from 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 report accompanying this release.

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

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.

2. Executive summary

The key findings from this publication are:

• the total value of UK security exports was £12.9 billion in 2024 – this represents a 16.6% increase from 2023 in nominal prices

• cyber security accounted for 67% of the value of UK security exports in 2024, while physical security exports represented the remaining 33% of the total value

• cyber security exports were worth £8.6 billion in 2024, an increase of 18.9% from 2023 in nominal prices, making them worth twice as much as physical security exports, which totalled £4.3 billion

• using an alternative methodology for international exporters, the top 2 security exporters globally in 2024 were estimated to be the United States ($45.5 billion US dollars’ worth of exports) and China ($18.3 billion US dollars)

3. UK security exports

The UK’s security exports were estimated to be £12.9 billion in 2024, an increase of 16.6% from 2023 in nominal prices.

Figure 1: UK security exports, 2016 to 2024 (£ 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	11.1	Westlands Advisory
2024	12.9	Westlands Advisory

Source: Frost & Sullivan, Westlands Advisory

Figure 1 shows historical security export figures between 2016 and 2024. Over this period different contractors have provided this information, and the source for each year is identified in the chart.

Figures for 2023 have been revised by WA as more data has become available since the analysis for the 2023 statistics was carried out. As a result of the inclusion of this additional data, total annual export figures increased to £11.1 billion in 2023, an increase of 0.3%.

4. UK security exports by technology segment

Revenues from cyber security far exceeded those from any other non-cyber sector at a value of £8.6 billion and accounted for 67% of total UK security export revenue in 2024.

Figure 2: UK security exports by technology segment, 2024 (£ billion)

Technology segment	Value (£ billion)
Cyber security	8.6
Fire equipment	0.8
Data and analytics	0.6
Screening and Detection	0.6
Access control and identity	0.5
Surveillance	0.5
Communications	0.4
Managed services	0.3
Risk services and protection	0.2
Personal protective equipment	0.2
Vehicles	0.1
Command and control	0.1
Disaster management	0.0

Source: Westlands Advisory

UK cyber security exports increased by 18.9% in nominal prices from 2023 to 2024 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.

Figure 3: UK security exports by technology category, 2020 to 2024 (£ 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
2024	8.6	4.3

Source: Westlands Advisory

UK cyber security exports have also grown considerably over the longer period from 2016 to 2024, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: UK cyber security exports, 2016 to 2024 (£ 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
2024	8.6	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 2024 was Europe at £6.5 billion, accounting for 51% of all security exports. The cyber and physical security exports breakdown to Europe accounted for 55% and 41%, respectively. The second largest export market was North America at £2.8 billion.

For the first time since 2021, the value of physical security exports exceeded that of cyber security exports in the Middle East and Central Asia. In all other regions, cyber security exports accounted for the majority of export value. In Europe, the UK’s largest regional market, the value of cyber security exports was 2.7 times higher than that of physical security exports.

Table 1:  UK cyber and physical security exports by destination region, 2024 (£ billion)

Destination region	Cyber (value £ billion)	Physical (value £ billion)	Total  (value £ billion)
Europe	4.7	1.8	6.5
North America	1.7	1.1	2.8
Asia Pacific	1.2	0.6	1.8
Middle East	0.6	0.7	1.3
Africa	0.2	0.1	0.3
Latin America	0.1	0.1	0.2
Central Asia	0.0	0.0	0.0

Source: Westlands Advisory

Note: 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, refer to the methodology report accompanying this release.

WA has estimated the values of other countries’ security exports in 2024. 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 5.

Figure 5: estimated value of rest of world security exports by exporting country, 2024 ($ billion US Dollars)

Country	Value ($ billion US Dollars)
United States	45.5
China	18.3
France	10.6
Germany	9.8
Japan	7.9
Israel	6.8
South Korea	5.0
Italy	4.6
Spain	3.7
Singapore	2.9

Source: Westlands Advisory

7. Further information

Department for Business and Trade statistics

Contact

statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Responsible statistician: Yi Zhang

Author: Mihaela Panea

Media enquiries: 020 7215 2000