Service demographics offer snapshot of force

  • Published
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNEWS) --  The Air Force Personnel Center here recently published its demographics report offering a snapshot of the service's active-duty and civilian force, as of Dec. 31.

More information can be found at the center's analysis branch Web site: http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/.

Statistics are rounded to the nearest tenth.

Active-Duty Demographics

Snapshot

- 340,664 individuals are on active duty

-- 69,192 officers and 271,472 enlisted personnel

- The Air Force has 13,570 pilots, 4,407 navigators, 1,372 air battle managers and 33,656 non-rated line officers in the grades of lieutenant colonel and below

Age

- The average age of the officer force is 35; for the enlisted force it is 29

- Of the force, 38.8 percent are below the age of 26

-- 45.3 percent of enlisted are below 26 versus 13.2 percent of officers

Gender

- There are 66,918 women on active duty; that is 19.6 percent of the force

-- 18.2 percent of the officers are women and 20 percent of the enlisted corps are women

-- 59.5 percent of the female officers are line officers; 40.5 percent are non-line

-- 85.5 percent of the male officers are line officers; 14.5 percent are non-line

- Women first began entering pilot training in 1976, fighter pilot training in July 1993 and navigator training in 1977

-- Currently there are 597 (4.1 percent) female pilots, 229 (4.8 percent) female navigators and 164 air battle managers (11.7 percent)

Race

The following percentages cover self-reported Air Force military members' racial information.

- 0.6 percent reported their race to be American Indian or Alaska Native

- 2.3 percent reported their race to be Asian

- 14.8 percent reported their race to be Black or African American

- 0.8 percent reported their race to be Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

- 74.3 percent reported their race to be White

- 1.6 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories

- 5.6 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.

- 9 percent of airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"

- 87.9 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"

- 3.1 percent declined to respond

Marital Status

- 60.6 percent of the current force is married

-- 72.2 percent of the officers are married and 57.7 percent of the enlisted

- There are 19,783 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military

-- 1,366 of these are married to members of other military services

Family Members

- Active duty members supported 517,751 family members

-- 416,417 are family-members-in-household

Overseas

- 21.3 percent of the current force is assigned overseas (including Alaska and Hawaii)

-- 10,432 officers and 62,160 enlisted personnel

Total Active Federal Military Service

- The average total active federal military service is 11 years for officers and 9 years for enlisted

Academic Education

- 49.9 percent of the officers have advanced or professional degrees

-- 39.9 percent have master's degrees, 8.7 percent have professional degrees and 1.3 percent have doctorate degrees

-- 23.4 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees; 16.8 percent have master's degrees, 6.2 percent have professional degrees and 0.3 percent have doctorate degrees

-- 85 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees; 70.4 percent have master's degrees, 12.1 percent have professional degrees and 2.6 percent have doctorate degrees

- 99.95 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education

-- 73.6 percent have some semester hours towards a college degree

-- 16.2 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours

-- 4.8 percent have a bachelor's degree

-- 0.7 percent have a master's degree

-- .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree

Component

- 99.5 percent of the officers have a Regular commission

-- 99.6 percent of the line officers have a Regular commission

Developmental Education

- 59.3 percent of the officers have completed one or more PME or developmental education course either in residence or by correspondence.

-- 8,714 have completed at least one Senior Service School or senior developmental education course, 13,897 have completed an intermediate level course while 18,418 have completed Squadron Officer School.

Source of Commission

- 19.5 percent of the officers were commissioned through the Air Force Academy, 43 percent through Reserve Officer Training Corps and 20.9 percent through Officer Training School.

-- The remaining 16.6 percent were commissioned from other sources (direct appointment, etc.).



Civilian Employee Demographics

Total Civilian Strength

- There are 144,032 civilian employees

-- 75.9 percent are "white collar" and 24.1 percent are "blue collar"

Citizenship

- 134,785 are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals (9,869 are Air Force Reserve Technicians)

- 9,245 are foreign national employees

- 2 are other non-U.S. employees in the U.S. or a U.S. territory

Age

- The average age is 47.1 years

Length of Service

- The average length of service is 15.6 years

Retirement Eligibility

- 22.3 percent become eligible in more than 20 years

- 27.4 percent become eligible in 11-20 years

- 17.8 percent become eligible in 6-10 years

- 18.5 percent become eligible in 1-5 years

- 12.2 percent became eligible 1-5 years ago

- 1.8 percent became eligible more than 5 years ago

Gender

- 33.5 percent are female and 66.5 percent are male

Race

The following percentages cover self-reported Air Force civilian members' racial information.

- 1.2 percent reported their race to be American Indian or Alaska Native

- 4.8 percent reported their race to be Asian

- 11.6 percent reported their race to be Black or African American

- 0.2 percent reported their race to be Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

- 70.6 percent reported their race to be White

- 0.1 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories

- 11.5 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.

- 7.1 percent of airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"

- 92.9 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"

Overseas

- 10.8 percent of the total civilian work force are assigned overseas

- 40.7 percent are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals.

- 59.3 percent are local nationals

Military Service

- 2.5 percent of the civilian work force are retired officers

- 15.1 percent of the civilian work force are retired enlisted

- 30.3 percent of the civilian work force have some military service (not retired)

- 52 percent have no military service

Education

White Collar

- 25.3 percent have a bachelor's degree

-- 16.7 percent have a master's and 2 percent have a doctorate or professional degree

- 24.5 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

Blue Collar

- 4.3 percent have a bachelor's degree

-- 0.4 percent have a master's degree

- 27.2 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree

- 65.8 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent

- 1.9 percent have less than a high school diploma

Developmental Education

- 6,019 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools

-- 3,384 have completed Squadron Officer School

-- 3,403 have completed intermediate developmental education

-- 1,525 have completed senior developmental education

Executive-Level Training

- 354 employees have completed executive-level training

-- 19 Congressional Fellowship Programs

-- 296 Executive and Senior Leadership

-- 28 Public Administration graduate school

-- 15 Management graduate school

(Courtesy Air Force Personnel Center News Service)

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

Click here to view the comments/letters page