Service demographics offer snapshot of force

  • Published
  • Air Force Personnel Center
Air Force Personnel Center officials here recently published a demographics report offering a snapshot of the service's active-duty and civilian force. This data is current as of Sept. 30 and can also be found at http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/ under Air Force Demographics.

Statistics are rounded to the nearest tenth.

Active-duty demographics:

Snapshot of the Air Force
- 322, 897 individuals are on active duty
-- 64,805 officers and 258,092 enlisted personnel
- The Air Force has 13,242 pilots, 4,213 navigators, 1,282 air battle managers and 30,047 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, 38.47 percent are below the age of 26
-- 44.58 percent of enlisted Airmen are below 26 versus 14.11 percent of officers

Gender
- 19.6 percent of the force are women
-- 18.31 percent of the officers are women and 19.92 percent of the enlisted corps are women
-- 59.6 percent of the female officers are line officers; 40.4 percent are nonline
- 84.86 percent of the male officers are line officers; 15.14 percent are nonline
- The population of women is 63,272
- Women first entered pilot training in 1976, navigator training in 1977 and fighter pilot training in 1993
-- Currently, there are 601 (4.21 percent) female pilots, 246 (5.41 percent) female navigators and 151 air battle managers (11.3 percent)

Race of Airmen
The following percentages, which are self-reported, cover Air Force military members' racial information.
- 0.62 percent reported their race to be American Indian or native Alaskan
- 2.48 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 14.71 percent reported their race to be black or African American
- 0.97 percent reported their race to be native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 73.54 percent reported their race to be white
- 1.87 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 5.79 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.
- 9.7 percent of Airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 86.58 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"
-- 3.72 declined to respond

Marital status
- 60.2 percent of the current force is married, which is 71.66 percent of the officers and 57.33 percent of enlisted Airmen
- There are 19,287 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military
-- 1,395 of these are married to members of other military services

Family members
- Active-duty members support 492,002 family members
-- 387,180 family members reside in an Airman's household

Overseas
- 20.95 percent of the current force is assigned overseas (including Alaska and Hawaii)
-- 9,697 officers and 57,937 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
- 51.85 percent of the officers have advanced or professional degrees
-- 41.13 percent have master's degrees, 9.32 percent have professional degrees and 1.39 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 25.99 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees, 19.16 percent have master's degrees, 6.56 percent have professional degrees and 0.27 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 85.63 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees, 69.76 percent have master's degrees, 13 percent have professional degrees and 2.87 percent have doctorate degrees

Enlisted academic education
- 71.2 percent have some semester hours towards a college degree
-- 78 percent of Airmen
-- 77 percent of NCOs
-- 26 percent of senior NCOs
- 17.91 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours
-- 1.6 percent of Airmen
-- 18 percent of NCOs
-- 51 percent of senior NCOs
- 5.22 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 1.7 percent of Airmen
-- 3.9 percent of NCOs
-- 18 percent of senior NCOs
- 0.83 percent have a master's degree
-- .02 percent of Airmen
-- .39 percent of NCOs
-- 4.4 percent of senior NCOs
- .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree

Component
- 99.28 percent of the officers have a regular commission
-- 99.53 percent of the line officers have a regular commission

Developmental education
- 61.83 percent of the officers have completed one or more professional military education or developmental education courses either in residence or by correspondence.
-- 9,668 have completed at least one senior service school or senior developmental education course, 12,431have completed an intermediate level course while 17,972 have completed Squadron Officer School.

Source of commission
- 20.57 percent of the officers were commissioned through the Air Force Academy, 42.88 percent through Reserve Officer Training Corps and 19.38 percent through Officer Training School.
-- The remaining 17.17 percent were commissioned through other sources (direct appointment, etc.).

Civilian employee demographics

Total civilian strength
- There are 141,937 civilian employees
-- 77.4 percent are "white collar" and 22.6 percent are "blue collar"

Citizenship
- 132,665 are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals (10,134 are Air Force Reserve technicians)
- 9,270 are foreign national employees
- Two are other non-U.S. employees in the United States or a U.S. territory

Age
- The average age is 46.6 years

Length of service
- The average length of service is 15.3 years

Retirement eligibility
- 25.3 percent become eligible in more than 20 years
- 29.5 percent become eligible in 11-20 years
- 17.6 percent become eligible in 6-10 years
- 17.3 percent become eligible in 1-5 years
- 8.5 percent became eligible 0-5 years ago
- 1.9 percent became eligible more than 5 years ago

Gender
- 33.4 percent are female and 66.9 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 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
- 70.3 percent reported their race to be white
- 0.5 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 10.9 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 percent of airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 92.9 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"

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

Military service
- 3.1 percent of the civilian work force are retired officers
- 16.2 percent of the civilian work force are retired enlisted
- 29.5 percent of the civilian work force have some military service (not retired)
- 51.2 percent have no military service

Education (white collar)
- 25.3 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 18 percent have a master's degree and 2 percent have a doctorate or professional degree
- 23 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree
- 28.4 percent have at least a high school education
- 1.5 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
- 26.2 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree
- 67.9 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent
- 1.4 percent have less than a high school diploma

Developmental education
- 6,684 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools
-- 3,764 have completed Squadron Officer School
-- 3,544 have completed intermediate developmental education
-- 2,067 have completed senior developmental education

Executive-level training
- 323 employees have completed executive-level training
-- 25 Congressional fellowship programs
-- 270 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.