The Army currently has the largest reserve force within the British Armed Forces.

Reserves

The true strength of the reserves within British Armed Forces

The British Armed Forces reserves continue to play a significant role within the military and have formed a major part of some of the UK's most important operations in recent years.

The reserves, also known as the Volunteer Reserves, are made up of service personnel who balance their civilian lives with careers across the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Figures released by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) show that of the 190,170 total serving military personnel in the British Armed Forces, 18% of them are reservists.

That means that the overall strength of the Volunteer Reserves this year stands at 34,280, although that is a 6.2% drop in numbers since 2022, which is 2,320 personnel.

The largest reserve force is in the British Army, which has 27,570 reservists currently serving – some 80% of the UK's total reserve force.

The data shows reservists make up nearly a quarter of the total 114,210 British Army personnel – 78,060 regulars, 4,060 Gurkhas and 4,520 'other personnel'.

Despite being the biggest reserve force in the UK Armed Forces, the number of Army reservists decreased by 6.2% between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2023.

The reserves make up 18% of the British Armed Forces, across all three branches.

Meanwhile, the number of Royal Navy/Royal Marines reservists fell by nearly 10% between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2023.

There are 3,540 Navy/Marines reservists – 10.7% of the size of the regulars. The number of personnel in the Senior Service, which includes the Royal Marines, in total is 38,990.

The RAF – the smallest service in the Armed Forces in terms of personnel – has the fewest number of reservists (3,180).

RAF reservists make up 8.6% of the total Air Force personnel (36,970).

According to the MOD figures, the only branches of the British Armed Forces that saw an increase in numbers as of 1 January 2023 were the Gurkhas, and staff under the 'other personnel' heading serving in the Royal Navy.

The Gurkhas increased their size by 2.8% between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2023, which equates to an extra 110 people, while 'other personnel' saw a marginal 0.1% increase.

The Volunteer Reserve of the Royal Navy saw the largest percentage fall in numbers (9.7%) between January 2022 and January 2023, equivalent to 380 people.