Official Statistics

Annual location statistics: 1 April 2023

Published 13 July 2023

This statistical release presents figures on the national and international locations of all UK Regular Forces personnel and MOD Civilian personnel as at 1 April 2023, and the intake by Parliamentary Constituency into the UK Regular Forces as at 1 April 2022.

The strength by location tables present information on the stationed location of all UK Regular service and Civilian personnel by UK Unitary Authority and Local Authority Area, as well as global locations. Data are presented for each Service by Officer/Other Ranks breakdown, and for Civilian personnel by non industrial/industrial breakdown (including Trading Funds and Locally Engaged Civilians).

The Intake tables present information on Intake into the UK Regular Forces by Parliamentary Constituency. Data is presented for each Service with parliamentary constituencies grouped by UK Regions. The 1 April 2023 data for these tables is not available at the time of publication. The Annual Locations Report will be updated when these data become available.

1. Key Points and Trends

▼136,710	Strength of UK Regular Forces in UK as at 1 April 2023 a decrease of 5,350 compared with 1 April 2022
▼5,820	Strength of UK Regular Forces overseas as at 1 April 2023 a decrease of 80 compared with 1 April 2022
▲54,290	Strength of MOD Civilian personnel in UK as at 1 April 2023 an increase of 740 compared with 1 April 2022
▼4,540	Strength of MOD Civilian personnel located overseas as at 1 April 2023 a decrease of 20 compared with 1 April 2022
▲500	Strength of UK Regular Forces in Germany as at 1 April 2023 an increase of 50 compared with 1 April 2022
▼37,890	Largest UK Region concentration of UK Regular Forces is in South East UK as at 1 April 2023 a decrease of 780 compared with 1 April 2022
▲22,430	Largest UK region concentration of MOD Civilian personnel is in South West UK as at 1 April 2023 an increase of 610 compared with 1 April 2022

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

Would you like to be added to our contact list, so that we can inform you about updates to these statistics and consult you if we are thinking of making changes? You can subscribe to updates by emailing Analysis-Tri-Service@mod.gov.uk.

2. Introduction

This statistical release presents figures on the National and International locations of all UK Regular Forces personnel and MOD Civilian personnel, and the Intake into the UK Regular Forces by Parliamentary Constituency.

The basing of the UK Forces changed when the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 (SDSR) outlined a number of recommendations to transform the UK Forces in order to face new threats. These recommendations aimed to restructure the UK Armed Forces and rationalise the Defence estate. This instigated a number of more detailed plans including the Regular Army Basing Plan. A number of modifications were made to the structure and way each of the Services operated, with a focus on creation of a versatile Force. The modifications included the decisions to reconfigure the Army by reducing it from six to five multi-role brigades. The Royal Air Force (RAF) structure was focused around fewer Fast Jet platforms with increasing numbers of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and an improved strategic Air Transport Fleet. Additionally, the British Forces personnel previously based in Germany have been relocated back in the UK. These changes came into effect by 2020 and consequently impacted on basing both overseas and in the UK. Previous versions of this publication reported the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, released in November 2015. Prior to SDSR 2015, this publication reported the planned Future Force 2020, as set out in the SDSR 2010 which planned to reduce the size of the Armed Forces.

To provide a more solid overseas foundation for HM forces, the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (IR) presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister in 2021, seeks to invest in overseas strategic hubs in Oman, Singapore and Kenya in addition to the facilities and infrastructure in Cyprus, Gibraltar and Germany. The IR also seeks to expand the global network of British Defence Staffs, increasing it by nearly a third. This will see a fairly significant change in the basing of personnel overseas. This will be reported in future publications.

2.1 UK Regular Forces

Armed Forces figures are for UK Regular Forces (including both Trained and Untrained personnel), and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service personnel and mobilised reservists. Royal Navy / Royal Marines personnel on sea service are included against the local authority containing the home port of their ship. RAF Other Ranks serving in the South Atlantic are shown against the location containing their home base.

2.2 MOD Civilian personnel

Civilian figures are reported as Full Time Equivalent (FTE). FTE is a measure of the size of the workforce taking into account that some people work part-time. Part-time staff are counted according to the number of hours they work per week as a proportion of normal hours for their grade and location.

Other bulletins in this series can be found on the .gov.uk website.

3. UK Regular Forces by Region

The majority of Service personnel are located in the South East and South West of the UK with 37,890 and 36,890 personnel, respectively. The fewest personnel are located in the North East with 1,080 personnel. The largest decrease between 1 April 2022 and 1 April 2023 was in South West with a decrease of 1,610 (4.2 per cent). There were no increases in personnel in any Region.

A time series of United Kingdom Regular strengths can be found in the accompanying tables.

Strength: the number of UK Regular Forces personnel.

Stationed Location: location in which personnel work; this is not necessarily where personnel live.

Distribution of UK Regular Service Personnel by Region as at 01 April 2023

Figure 1: Distribution of UK Regular Personnel by Region as at 1 April 2023. UK Boundary Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right [2018].

A heat map of the UK showing that most of the UK Regular Forces are stationed in Southern England.

4. MOD Civilian Personnel by Region

The majority of MOD Civilians are located in the South West and South East of the UK with 22,430 and 9,770 civilians, respectively. The fewest civilians are located in the North East with 200 civilians. The largest increase in civilians between 1 April 2022 and 1 April 2023 was in the South West with an increase of 610 civilians. The largest decrease between 1 April 2022 and 1 April 2023 was in East Midland and East of England with a decrease of 60 each.

A time series of United Kingdom Civilian strengths can be found in the accompanying tables.

Strength: the number of MOD Civilian personnel.

Stationed Location: location in which personnel work; this is not necessarily where personnel live.

Distribution of MOD Civilian Personnel by Region as at 01 April 2023

Figure 2: Distribution of MOD Civilian Personnel by Region as at 1 April 2023. UK Boundary Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right [2018].

A heat map of the UK showing most of the MOD civilians are stationed in Southern England. The largest concentration of MOD Civilians is in South West England.

5. Worldwide Strengths

The strength of UK Regular Forces stationed overseas decreased from 5,890 to 5,820 (1.3 per cent) between 1 April 2022 and 1 April 2023. Over the same period, the number of MOD Civilian personnel based overseas decreased from 4,560 to 4,540 (0.4 per cent).

A time series of world wide strengths can be found in the accompanying tables.

5.1 Germany Drawdown

SDSR 2010 announced that while the presence of the British military in Germany has played an important role in demonstrating Alliance solidarity, there was no longer any operational requirement for UK forces to be based there, so the aim was to withdraw forces from Germany by 2020.

The Germany drawdown was aimed at seeing half of the approximate 20,000 personnel relocated by 2015 and the remainder by 2020, with the exclusion of approximately 200 Army, RN and RAF personnel who were to remain in Exchange and Liaison posts. This ended UK military basing in Germany. The greatest impact was in the Army, who, as at 1 April 2010, accounted for 98.4 per cent of the personnel stationed in Germany.

Strength Change

The strength declined from 19,100 as at 1 April 2010 to 450 as at 1 April 2021, a decrease of 18,650. The strength has increased to 500 as at 1 April 2023. These are Exchange and Liaison posts.

6. Intake by Parliamentary Constituency

The 1 April 2023 data for Intake by Parliamentary Constituency is not available at the time of publication. In the latest available financial year (12 months ending 31 March 2022), for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines, the region with the largest intake was South West with 500 personnel joining, while the Parliamentary Constituencies with the largest intake were Gosport and South West Devon with 30 personnel each joining. For the Army in the same period, Officer intake data could not be broken down by Parliamentary Constituency due to lack of recruits’ Postcode information. The Officers intake data has therefore been included in the ‘Unknown’ category in the accompanying Excel and ODS tables. For the Army, the region with the largest number of Other Ranks intake was South East with 990 personnel while the Parliamentary Constituency with the largest number of Other Ranks intake was Aldershot with 70 personnel. For the RAF, the regions with the largest intake were South West and East Midlands with 270 personnel each joining, while the Parliamentary Constituency with the largest number of intake was Sleaford and North Hykeham with 40.

7. Unitary and Local Authority Changes

The restructuring of Defence and the Defence Estate is affecting both Regular and Civilian distribution across Unitary and Local Authorities in the UK.

7.1 Northern Ireland

There has been a change in structure of Northern Ireland Districts with some Districts grouped together during the 2015-16 financial year.

7.2 England

There was a change in Local Authority name in April 2018 from Shepway to Folkestone and Hythe.

As at 1 April 2023, there were mergers of Local Authorities that occurred since 1 April 2022:

• Cumberland Council was formed from a merger of Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council and Copeland Borough Council.
• Westmorland and Furness Council was formed from a merger of Barrow Borough Council, Eden District Council, South Lakeland District Council. Both Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council have replaced Cumbria County Council.
• North Yorkshire Council was formed from a merger of North Yorkshire Council with Craven District Council, Hambleton District Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Scarborough Borough Council, Selby District Council, Richmondshire District Council and Ryedale District Council.
• Somerset Council was formed from a merger of Mendip District Council, Sedgemoor District Council, Somerset West and Taunton Council, and South Somerset District Council.

7.3 Trading Funds

The Trading Funds total Strength as at 1 April 2023 was 8,870. Trading Funds comprise Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA), United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO).

There was a large reduction in Trading Funds strength between 1 January 2015 and 1 April 2015. This was driven by the privatisation of Defence Support Group and the transfer of 2,000 personnel as at 1 April 2015. Approximately 450 personnel were retained with the Department as the Defence Electronic Components Agency (DECA), which was then within Head Office and Corporate Services.

8. Data Sources and Notes

8.1 UK Regular Forces

UK Regular Forces data are sourced from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system. Location data are based on the stationed location of the individual as recorded in the ‘Assignment Location’ field of the JPA system. The figures are based on Service personnel’s stationed location and not their location of residence - where personnel work isn’t necessarily where they live. Personnel deployed on operations to an area away from their stationed location are shown against their most recent stationed location.

Following a request in Defence Orals in April 2020, data on the Parliamentary Constituency of recruits (intake) is now included in these statistics, beginning with the April 2021 release. Data on recruits joining the Armed Forces is held by Defence Recruiting System (DRS). Data extracts are obtained from DRS and data validation and processing is performed by the single Services analysis teams (Analysis Navy, Analysis Army and Analysis Air). The Parliamentary Constituency is identified from “contact” Postcode as recorded in the DRS for Air and Navy data, however the Army data uses the Postcode District only, not the full Postcode, as per the information held in Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command (ARITC) management information system. This is then linked to the latest ONS geographical lookup tables.

Air and Navy data are produced using full “contact” Postcodes on intake and therefore provides a completely accurate intake by Constituency. Any Constituencies with no personnel recorded truly have had no intake over the reported period for these two Services.

However, for the Army data in the financial years 2014/15 to 2020/21, only Postcode District is available and therefore used to derive Constituency. Postcode Districts can overlap Constituencies and therefore we have assigned personnel to the Constituency which has a majority of Postcodes associated with the relevant Postcode District. Two Constituencies, namely Dudley South and Northampton North, have no Postcode Districts where the majority of Postcodes fall in the Constituency, and so have no reported intake. It should be noted that this does not mean that no personnel have been recruited from these Constituencies, rather they cannot be assigned there due to the methodology used.

For the intake into the Army in the financial year 2021/2022, Officers’ Postcode data were unavailable, and so Officer data could not be broken down to Constituency level, and have been included in the “Unknown” category. For Other Ranks, Parliamentary Constituency has been derived using a mix of Postcode District only for personnel whose Postcode information is partial, and the full Postcode for those with complete Postcode information. The partial Postcode information has been obtained from ARITC management information system, and the available full Postcode information has been obtained from the Recruitment and Training Pipeline Project (RTPP) information. RTPP is an ongoing project within the MOD Analysis Function aiming to streamline data on intake into the Armed Forces. Where the full Postcode is available, this has been used to assign personnel to a Constituency, otherwise, Constituency has been derived using the Postcode District only, as per the information held in ARITC management information system. Due to this, there could be instances where a Postcode District covers more than one Parliamentary Constituency. Where this occurs, personnel are assigned to the Parliamentary Constituency where the majority of a Postcode District lies.

The methodology is currently under review and is being revised to use full Postcodes for all three services for the next Annual Location Statistics, increasing the quality of the data produced.

8.2 MOD Civilians

MOD civilian data are compiled from several sources:

Core MOD personnel

Data for core MOD personnel are taken from the personnel system - MyHR. Analysis Tri-Service use budgetary Unit Identity Numbers (UINs) and attribute people according to the budgetary area that pays them, using the Standing Data System hierarchy from Financial Management Information Systems.

Trading Funds

Trading Funds were introduced by the Government under the Trading Funds Act 1973 as a ‘means of financing trading operations of a government department which, hitherto, have been carried out on Vote’. They are self-accounting units that have greater freedom than other government departments in managing their own financial and management activities. Currently the MOD has four Trading Funds - Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA), United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO). Until 1 October 2011, the Met Office also was reported on by the MOD, but as of 1 October 2011 their responsibility transferred to the Department for Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Defence Support Group (DSG) was privatised as at 1 April 2015, with approximately 2,000 posts transferring to Babcock. Approximately 450 personnel were retained with the Department as the Defence Electronic Components Agency (DECA), which was then within Head Office and Corporate Services.

Locally engaged civilians (LEC)

LEC employees are recruited overseas exclusively for employment in support of the UK Armed Forces deployed in a particular overseas theatre, on terms and conditions of service applicable only to that overseas theatre or Administration.

Previously this has included the dependents of UK military personnel or UK-based civilian staff employed in overseas theatre (who are sometimes separately identified as UK Dependents). However, to reflect the different terms and conditions of these personnel, UK dependents are not included in LEC figures from October 2013. LECs are not civil servants. LEC data are provided by Top Level Budgetary areas quarterly to Analysis Tri-Service requirements. LEC FTE strengths are based on the actual FTE of part-time LECs where available, and the FTE for those part-time personnel where actual values remain unavailable are estimated with the mean FTE of part-time LECs, increasing the accuracy of LEC FTE.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA)

The civilian-manned Royal Fleet Auxiliary delivers worldwide logistical and operational support for the wide range of tasks the Royal Navy undertakes, including warfighting, counter-piracy, humanitarian and disaster relief, and counter-narcotics operations. RFA data are now taken from the Magellan personnel system. Previously these data were taken from the CHIPS payroll system, but moving to the Magellan system allows total personnel numbers to be reported, rather than purely those being paid. Due to using this system Analysis Tri-Service do not have access to the location of these personnel.

Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S)

DE&S changed status as at 1 April 2015 and was reclassified as a Bespoke Trading Entity, reported under the title DES Bespoke Trading Entity, and will be reported in the same format as current Trading Funds. For the purposes of the ALS report, it has been reported in Industrial and Non Industrial Civilian figures to allow comparable analysis of DE&S across the SDSR periods on a consistent basis.

9. Further Information

9.1 Symbols

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

9.2 Rounding

When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias of always rounding up to the nearest 10.

Where rounding has been used, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts.

9.3 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:

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