Scotland’s Census 2022 - UK Armed Forces veterans
An Accredited Official Statistics publication for Scotland
Published: 13 June 2024
This report presents census data on UK Armed Forces veterans for the first time. Key findings include the age profile of veterans and how the veteran population is spread across Scotland.
Census data will help government, charities and other service providers to understand more about the needs of UK Armed Forces veterans, and their families.
“Scotland’s Census found that 176,100 people had previously served in the UK Armed Forces, 3.9% of people aged 16 and over.”
Jon Wroth-Smith, Director of Census Statistics, National Records of Scotland
Scotland’s Census found that 176,100 people had previously served in the UK Armed Forces. This is 3.9% of people aged 16 and over.
The census in England and Wales asked the same question in 2021. A similar percentage (3.8%) said they had served in the UK Armed Forces.
Half of all veterans (50.4%) were aged 65 and over. And just under one third (30.6%) were aged 50 to 64.
People in younger age groups are less likely to be Armed Forces veterans. Statistics from the Ministry of Defence show that in the 12 months ending 30 September 2022 the average age people joined the regular Armed Forces was around 20 and the average age they left was around 31 (Tables 9 and 25, UK armed forces biannual diversity statistics: index).
“Half of all veterans were aged 65 and over, and just under one third were aged 50 to 64.”
Jon Wroth-Smith, Director of Census Statistics, National Records of Scotland
We can also look at the percentage of the population who were veterans in each age group. The percentage of veterans increases as we go from younger to older age groups.
This reflects how the percentage of the population serving in the Armed Forces has varied over the last 90+ years. The high percentage of veterans in the oldest groups is explained by the National Service policy in place between 1939 to 1960 and War Service (to 1948).
Around one in five people aged 85 and over had previously served in the UK Armed Forces. If we look specifically at males, we see that over half of all males aged 85 and over had previously served.
The majority of veterans in Scotland were male (88%). The census recorded 20,600 female veterans in total across Scotland.
The council areas with the highest percentage of veterans in their population were mostly areas that contain or are close to military bases:
- Moray (9.0% of population aged 16 and over)
- Angus (6.1%)
- Argyll and Bute (5.9%)
- Fife (5.6%)
- Perth and Kinross (5.4%)
- Highland (5.3%)
The six council areas listed above are home to around one third (29.4%) of Armed Forces veterans in Scotland. For comparison, these areas account for around one fifth (19.3%) of Scotland’s overall population.
This shows that some UK Armed Forces veterans stay in these areas after they have left service. But the veteran population was generally spread across Scotland.
City of Edinburgh (2.6%), and Glasgow City (2.0%) were amongst the council areas with the lowest percentage of veterans, relative to their population. This is partly due to those two council areas having large and relatively young populations. However City of Edinburgh (11,600) and Glasgow City (10,700) were behind only Fife (17,200) for total number of veterans.
Overall, 6.7% of households in Scotland included at least one UK Armed Forces veteran.
The majority of veterans in Scotland (72%) served in the regular UK Armed Forces. A further 22% served in the reserve Armed Forces and 6% served in both.
Data related to this release
Search for Scotland’s Census 2022 data tables in the census data section.
Output areas tables are available to download separately.
Geography boundaries and lookups for use with census data are available on the NRS website.
Great Britain totals for UK Armed Forces veterans are available on the ONS website.
Privacy protection
All data tables have privacy protection applied to keep the data of individuals safe. Cells might not sum to sub totals and totals due to these Statistical Disclosure Controls (SDC). More information about SDC is available via the slides from our May 2024 webinars.
Armed Forces veterans question
The 2022 census included a new question on previous UK Armed Forces service. This means we do not have comparable data for previous censuses. The new question asked people aged 16 and over whether they had previously served in the regular or reserve UK Armed Forces, or both. People currently serving in the UK Armed Forces were advised to tick "no".
People who have previously served in the UK Armed Forces are often known as veterans and form part of the Armed Forces community. The data from this question will help government, charities and other service providers to understand more about the needs of UK Armed Forces veterans, and their families.
Working with census statistics
Census statistics represent the total population rather than just those who completed the questionnaire. Since the 2001 censuses, statistical modelling has been used across the United Kingdom to produce total population estimates from census responses.
As with all estimates, there is a level of uncertainty. Users should consider uncertainty when working with census estimates and interpreting small changes.
More information on quality
The quality of census data is important. We made innovative changes to our approach to account for the census response rate (89.8%) and ensure census statistics represent the total population rather than just those who completed the questionnaire.
We published a blog on the quality of small area statistics and why you can be confident using census data.
Quality assurance
We have published quality information for the variables included in this release alongside this report.
In 2023 we published a report on our approach to statistical quality assurance alongside the first release of data from Scotland’s Census 2022. We have carried out extensive quality assurance work to produce high quality census estimates.
Rounding
This report uses rounded estimates. Figures may not add exactly to totals because of the rounding. Unrounded census data is used to calculate percentages and for comparisons with previous censuses.
An Accredited Official Statistics publication for Scotland
These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in September 2023. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
Future census publications
We will publish outputs from Scotland's Census 2022 in phases. This reflects the additional work required to produce more detailed census statistics.
Topic summaries
This report is the second in a series of topic summaries. The remaining summaries are:
- Sexual orientation and trans status or history (27 June)
- Demography and migration (August)
- Housing (August)
- Education, Labour market and travel to work (September)
- Health, disability and unpaid care (September)
The topic order above is provisional and release dates will be confirmed on our census outputs release schedule page.
Topic data will be published down to output area where possible. Output areas are made up of approximately 50 households. We will also produce breakdowns of these topics by age and sex where appropriate.
Multivariate/Build your own tables
After the remaining topic releases we will publish multivariate data. This means we will publish tables which include more than one census topic variable. For example, ethnic group by country of birth.
Our Flexible Table Builder will allow users to create their own census tables. Users will be able to combine the different census variables they are interested in.
Glossary
Age
A person's age on Census Day, 20 March 2022. Infants aged under 1 year are classified as 0 years of age.
Armed Forces veteran
A person who has previously served in the UK Armed Forces.
Regular Armed Forces
People who serve full-time and maintain military readiness at all times. They form the main armed force of a country.
Reserve Armed Forces
Typically volunteers who maintain their regular jobs and lifestyle but can be called in for active duty when needed.
Council Area
There are 32 council areas in Scotland. Councils provide public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning.
Household
A household is defined as:
- one person living alone, or
- a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room, or dining area
This includes:
- all sheltered accommodation units in an establishment (irrespective of whether there are other communal facilities), and
- all people living in caravans on any type of site that is their usual residence; this will include anyone who has no other usual residence elsewhere in the UK
A household must contain at least one person whose place of usual residence is at the address. A group of short-term residents living together is not classified as a household, and neither is a group of people at an address where only visitors are staying.
UK censuses
The Office for National Statistics is responsible for the census in England and Wales. Data and supporting information is available on the ONS website.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency is responsible for the census in Northern Ireland. Data and supporting information is available on the NISRA website.
Contact us
Please get in touch if you need any further information, or have any suggestions for improvement.
E-mail: [email protected]
NRS customer services telephone: 0131 202 0451
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© Crown Copyright 2024 SG/2024/117