Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total number of personnel in the armed forces in the UK, including reserve forces.

As at 1 January 2024, there were 138,100 UK Forces personnel, of which 132,360 are based in-country.

As at 1 January 2024 there were 32,650 Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) of which an estimated 32,310 are based in-country.

The stationed location data for Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) Reserves has not been fully verified, therefore the figure provided is considered to be an estimate. Future Reserves 2020 includes volunteer reserves who are mobilised, HRR and volunteer reserve personnel serving on Additional Duties Commitment (ADC) or FTRS contracts.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 to prevent inadvertent disclosure. However, numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias. Totals and its constituent numbers have been rounded separately, and so totals may not equal the sums of their rounded parts.

Further Stationed Location Stats for UK Regulars can be found in the Annual Location Statistics (ALS) publication:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/location-of-all-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-annual-statistics-index