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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(24 February 2025)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Foreign and Commonwealth soldiers are in the UK Armed Forces, by nationality.

Asked by:
Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative)

Answer

The number of non-UK personnel serving in the Trained and Trade Trained Strength of the Regular Armed Forces and the Brigade of Gurkhas as at 1 January 2025 is shown in the table(s) below.

Table 1: Number of Non-UK Regulars1 by Nationality2 as at 1 January 2025

Nationality

Total

British Hong Kong

20

British Overseas Citizen

[c]

British Overseas Territory Citizen

40

Australian

30

Bahamian

[c]

Bangladeshi

10

Barbadian

10

Belizean

20

Botswanan

10

Cameroonian

30

Canadian

30

Citizen of Fiji

2,270

Citizen of Seychelles

[c]

Citizen of Sri Lanka

10

Cypriot

[c]

Dominican

20

Gambian

30

Ghanaian

810

Grenadian

170

Guyanese

[c]

Indian

90

Jamaican

110

Kenyan

230

Malawian

220

Malaysian

[c]

Maltese

[c]

Mauritian

20

Namibian

[c]

Nepalese

780

New Zealander

30

Nigerian

110

Pakistani

10

Papua New Guinean

[c]

Samoan

[c]

Sierra Leonean

[c]

Singaporean

[c]

Solomon Islander

[c]

South African

280

St Lucian

510

Swazi

[c]

Tanzanian

10

Tongan

[c]

Trinidad and Tobago citizen

60

Ugandan

20

Vincentian

1,300

Zambian

10

Zimbabwean

20

Table 2: Number of Brigade of Gurkhas by Nationality2 as at 1 January 2025

Nationality

Total

Nepalese

4,130

Notes/Caveats

  1. UK Regulars comprise of Full Time Service Personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non-Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Unless otherwise stated, includes trained and untrained personnel.
  2. Nationality is as self-declared on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA).
  3. Nepalese personnel in the Regulars are those that have transferred out of the Brigade of Gurkhas.
  4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 in line with disclosure control policy. Figures ending in 5 are rounded to the nearest 20 to avoid bias, 0 is represented by '-'. Figures below are represented by '[c]'.

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Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.