Service demographics offer snapshot of force

  • Published
Air Force Personnel Center officials here have released the current demographics report which offers a snapshot of the service's active-duty and civilian force. This data is current as of March 31 and also can be found at the Air Force Demographics Web site.  Statistics are rounded to the nearest tenth.

Active-duty demographics:

Snapshot of the Air Force
- 326,199 individuals are on active duty
   -- 64,313 officers and 261,886 enlisted personnel
- The Air Force has 13,305 pilots, 4,117 navigators, 1,307 air battle managers and
   29,586 nonrated line officers in the grades of lieutenant colonel and below

Age
- The average age of the officer force is 35; for enlisted Airmen, it's 29
- Of the force, 38.9 percent are below the age of 26
   -- 45.2 percent of enlisted Airmen are below 26 vs 13.1 percent of officers

Gender
- 19.6 percent of the force are women
    -- 18.28 percent of the officers are women and 19.91 percent of the enlisted corps
        are women 
    -- 56.91 percent of the female officers are line officers; 43.09 percent are nonline
- 84.87 percent of the male officers are line officers; 15.13 percent are nonline
- The population of women is 63,899
- Women first entered pilot training in 1976, navigator training in 1977 and fighter pilot
   training in 1993
   -- Currently, there are 613 (4.26 percent) female pilots, 247 (5.52 percent) female
       navigators and 160 air battle managers (11.74 percent)

Race of Airmen
The following percentages, which are self-reported, cover Air Force military members' racial information.
- 0.63 percent reported their race to be American Indian or native Alaskan
- 2.5 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 14.74 percent reported their race to be black or African American
- 1.01 percent reported their race to be native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 73.37 percent reported their race to be white
- 1.93 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 5.75 percent declined to report their race

Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is now considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
- 9.95 percent of Airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 86.22 percent "not Hispanic/Latino" 
  -- 3.84 declined to respond

Marital status
- 59.6 percent of the current force is married, which is 72 percent of the officers 
  and 56.5 percent of enlisted Airmen
- There are 17,660 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military
   -- 1,384 of these are married to members of other military services

Family members
- Active-duty members support 444,376 family members
  -- 351,122 family members reside in an Airman's household

Overseas
- 20.94 percent of the current force is assigned overseas (including Alaska 
  and Hawaii)
  -- 9,740 officers and 58,574 enlisted personnel

Total active federal military service
- The average total active federal military service is 11 years for officers and 8 years 
   for enlisted Airmen

Officer academic education
- 52.97 percent of the officers have advanced or professional degrees
   -- 42.1 percent have master's degrees, 9.44 percent have professional degrees 
       and 1.4 percent have doctorate degrees
   -- 27.53 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees, 20.37 percent 
       have master's degrees, 6.86 percent have professional degrees and 0.3 percent 
       have doctorate degrees
   -- 85.89 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees, 70.13 percent have 
       master's degrees, 12.85 percent have professional degrees and 2.91 percent 
       have doctorate degrees

Enlisted academic education
- 70.56 percent have some semester hours towards a college degree
   -- 76 percent of Airmen
   -- 77 percent of NCOs
   -- 26 percent of senior NCOs
- 18.17 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours
   -- 1.7 percent of Airmen
   -- 18 percent of NCOs
   -- 51 percent of senior NCOs
- 5.24 percent have a bachelor's degree
   -- 1.8 percent of Airmen
   -- 3.9 percent of NCOs
   -- 18 percent of senior NCOs
- 0.85 percent have a master's degree
   -- .02 percent of Airmen
   -- .42 percent of NCOs
   -- 4.5 percent of senior NCOs
- .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree

Component
- 99.45 percent of the officers have a regular commission
   -- 99.62 percent of the line officers have a regular commission

Developmental education
- 83.54 percent of the officers have completed one or more professional military
   education or developmental education courses either in residence or by 
   correspondence.
   -- 9,815 have completed at least one senior service school or senior developmental 
       education course, 12,832 have completed an intermediate level course while 
       30,026 have completed Squadron Officer School.

Source of commission
- 20.42 percent of the officers were commissioned through the Air Force Academy, 
  43.05 percent through Reserve Officer Training Corps and 19.39 percent through 
  Officer Training School.
   -- The remaining 17.14 percent were commissioned through other sources (direct 
       appointment, etc.).

Civilian employee demographics

Total civilian strength
- There are 123,772 civilian employees
   -- 77.7 percent are "white collar" and 22.3 percent are "blue collar"

Citizenship
- 133,751 are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals (10,262 are Air Force 
   Reserve technicians)
- 9,251 are foreign national employees
- One is other non-U.S. employees in the U.S. or a U.S. territory

Age
- The average age is 46.7 years

Length of service
- The average length of service is 15.1 years

Retirement eligibility
- 25.5 percent become eligible in more than 20 years
- 29.3 percent become eligible in 11-20 years
- 17.6 percent become eligible in 6-10 years
- 17 percent become eligible in 1-5 years
- 8.7 percent became eligible 0-5 years ago
- 1.9 percent became eligible more than 5 years ago

Gender
- 33 percent are female and 67 percent are male

Race
The following percentages cover self-reported Air Force civilian members' racial information.
- 1.1 percent reported their race to be American Indian or native Alaskan
- 5.1 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 11.9 percent reported their race to be black or African American
- 0.3 percent reported their race to be native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 70.4 percent reported their race to be white
- 0.6 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 10.6 percent declined to report their race

Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is now considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
- 6.9 percent of airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 93.1 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"

Overseas
- 10.9 percent of the total civilian work force is assigned overseas
- 40.8 percent are U.S. citizens including U.S. Nationals.
- 59.2 percent are local nationals

Military service
- 3.2 percent of the civilian work force are retired officers
- 16.6 percent of the civilian work force are retired enlisted
- 29.4 percent of the civilian work force have some military service (not retired)
- 50.8 percent have no military service

Education (white collar)
- 25.4 percent have a bachelor's degree
   -- 18.3 percent have a master's degree and 2.1 percent have a doctorate or 
        professional degree
- 22.5 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a 
   bachelor's degree
- 28.6 percent have at least a high school education
- 1.3 percent have less than a high school diploma

Education (blue collar)
- 3.9 percent have a bachelor's degree 
   -- 0.3 percent have a master's degree
- 26 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a 
  bachelor's degree
- 68.3 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent
- 1.3 percent have less than a high school diploma

Developmental education
- 6,903 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools
   -- 3,848 have completed Squadron Officer School
   -- 3,580 have completed intermediate developmental education
   -- 2,225 have completed senior developmental education

Executive-level training
- 307 employees have completed executive-level training
   -- 25 Congressional fellowship programs
   -- 254 executive and senior executive leadership
   -- 24 public administration graduate school
   -- 10 management graduate school

For more information, go to Air Force Personnel Statistics on AFPC's "Ask" Web site.


Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

View the comments/letters page