The overall size of the UK Armed Forces has edged up, with recruitment improving and outflow falling, but the number of fully trained personnel has continued to decline, according to the latest Ministry of Defence quarterly personnel statistics.
At 1 January 2026, total UK service personnel stood at 182,050, up by 1,270 from a year earlier. That increase was driven by modest growth in regulars, Gurkhas, reserves and other personnel, with UK Regular Forces rising to 136,960, Gurkhas to 4,190, Volunteer Reserves to 32,030 and Other Personnel to 8,880.
By service, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines rose to 38,130, the Army to 108,620 and the Royal Air Force to 35,300. Within that, regular strength increased in the RN/RM, up from 31,910 to 32,380, and in the RAF, up from 30,360 to 30,790, while the Army’s regular strength slipped slightly from 73,850 to 73,790.
Full-Time Trained Strength in the Royal Navy and RAF, and Full-Time Trade Trained Strength in the Army, fell to 126,440, down by 600 over the year. The RN/RM was the only service to record a small rise, up to 28,140, while the Army fell to 70,630 and the RAF to 27,670.
That decline in experienced strength came despite a better recruiting year. In the 12 months to 31 December 2025, 14,340 people joined the Regular Armed Forces, up by 1,500 on the previous year, while 13,500 left, down by 1,320. That left intake ahead of outflow by 840, a marked improvement on the previous 12-month period, when outflow exceeded intake by 1,980.
The strongest intake increase came in the RAF, up 39.6 per cent year-on-year, while Army intake rose 8.6 per cent and RN/RM intake 3 per cent. The MOD said intake has been higher than outflow for the RN/RM since January 2025 and for the RAF since August 2025, while the Army’s gap has been narrowing since late 2023 but intake still remains below outflow.
The Army’s overall trained strength, using the Army’s broader Phase 1-trained definition, rose very slightly from 75,040 to 75,090. But its more meaningful trade-trained strength, the number usually used as the closest comparison with fully trained personnel in the other services, fell from 71,150 to 70,630. Army trade-trained other ranks dropped from 59,210 to 58,690 over the year.
Voluntary outflow is still the biggest reason people leave, Across the trained force, 6,330 personnel left voluntarily in the year to 31 December 2025, accounting for 60.5 per cent of trained outflow. The overall voluntary outflow rate stood at 5.2 per cent, including 5.5 per cent in the Army, 5.1 per cent in the RN/RM and 4.4 per cent in the RAF. Trained Future Reserves 2020 strength fell by 200 to 29,060, although the total trained and untrained reserve population edged up by 50 to 32,090. The Maritime Reserve’s trained strength rose slightly to 2,630, but the Army Reserve fell to 23,740 and the RAF Reserve to 2,690.
Applications were mixed AS Royal Navy and Royal Marines Regular applications in the 12 months to 30 September 2025 rose 24.3 per cent to a provisional 35,660, while RAF Regular applications rose 24.6 per cent to 53,680. Army Regular applications fell sharply to 108,020, down 36.6 per cent, though the MOD notes that a change in extraction criteria means those figures are not directly comparable with earlier data. It also says a short opening of Commonwealth applications in August 2024 caused a large spike, which inflated the totals without necessarily improving likely intake because Commonwealth entry is tightly capped.
So the headline is better than it has been for a while: overall numbers are up, intake is stronger, outflow is lower, and the regular force looks more stable than it did a year ago. But the long-running issue has not gone away. The services, especially the Army, are still finding it harder to grow their trained strength than their overall headcount.
