Service demographics offer snapshot of force

  • Published

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://wwa.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/.

Statistics rounded to the nearest tenth.

Active-duty demographics

Snapshot of the Air Force
- 325,725 individuals are on active duty
-- 64,927 officers and 260,798 enlisted personnel
- The Air Force has 13,099 pilots, 4,226 navigators, 1,246 air battle managers and 30,531 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's 29
- Of the force, 38.65 percent are below age 26
-- 13.8 percent of officers are below age 26 versus 44.83 percent of enlisted force

Gender
- 19.57 percent of the force are women
-- 17.98 percent of the officers are women and 19.97 percent of the enlisted corps are women
-- 57.04 percent of the female officers are line officers; 42.96 percent are non-line
-- 84.94 percent of the male officers are line officers; 15.06 percent are non-line
- The population of women is 63,760
- Women first began entering pilot training in 1976, fighter pilot training in July 1993 and navigator training in 1977
-- Currently there are 568 (4.02 percent) female pilots, 234 (5.14 percent) female navigators and 145 air battle managers (11.19 percent)

Race of Airmen
The following percentages cover self-reported Air Force military members' racial information.
- 0.61 percent reported their race to be American Indian or Alaska Native
- 2.44 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 14.7 percent reported their race to be Black or African American
- 0.91 percent reported their race to be Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 73.75 percent reported their race to be White
- 1.72 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 5.87 percent declined to report their race

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

Marital status
- 60.58 percent of the current force is married
-- 72.39 percent of the officers are married and 57.65 percent of the enlisted
- There are 19,338 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military
-- 1,378 of these are married to members of other military services

Family members
- Active duty members supported 498,351 family members
-- 394,493 are family-members-in-household

Overseas
- 20.98 percent of the current force is assigned overseas (including Alaska and Hawaii)
-- 9,802 officers and 58,530 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
- 50.76 percent of the officers have advanced or professional degrees
-- 40.16 percent have master's degrees, 9.28 percent have professional degrees and 1.32 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 24.37 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees; 17.39 percent have master's degrees, 6.69 percent have professional degrees and 0.29 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 84.75 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees; 69.39 percent have master's degrees, 12.71 percent have professional degrees and 2.66 percent have doctorate degrees
- 99.96 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education
-- 72.95 percent have some semester hours towards a college degree
-- 17.19 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours
-- 5 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 0.76 percent have a master's degree
-- 0.01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree

Component
- 99.52 percent of the officers have a regular commission
-- 99.77 percent of the line officers have a regular commission

Developmental education
- 60.76 percent of the officers have completed one or more professional military education or developmental education course either in residence or by correspondence.
-- 9,156 have completed at least one senior service school or senior developmental education course, 12,673 have completed an intermediate level course while 17,622 have completed squadron officer school.

Source of commission
- 19.84 percent of the officers were commissioned through the Air Force Academy, 43.17 percent through Reserve Officer Training Corps and 19.87 percent through officer training school.
-- The remaining 17.12 percent were commissioned from other sources (direct appointment, etc.).

Civilian employee demographics

Total Civilian strength
- There are 139,944 civilian employees
-- 75.9 percent are "white collar" and 24.1 percent are "blue collar"

Citizenship
- 130,835 are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals (9,612 are Air Force Reserve Technicians)
- 9,107 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 46.8 years

Length of service
- The average length of service is 15.6 years

Retirement eligibility
- 24 percent become eligible in more than 20 years
- 29.9 percent become eligible in 11-20 years
- 17.8 percent become eligible in 6-10 years
- 17.7 percent become eligible in 1-5 years
- 8.8 percent became eligible 1-5 years ago
- 1.8 percent became eligible more than 5 years ago

Gender
- 32.9 percent are female and 67.1 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 Alaska Native
- 5 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 11.7 percent reported their race to be Black or African American
- 0.2 percent reported their race to be Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 70.5 percent reported their race to be White
- 0.3 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 11.1 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
- 39.5 percent are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals.
- 60.5 percent are local nationals

Military service
- 2.9 percent of the civilian work force are retired officers
- 16 percent of the civilian work force are retired enlisted
- 29.9 percent of the civilian work force have some military service (not retired)
- 51.3 percent have no military service

Education

White collar
- 25.3 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 17.6 percent have a master's
-- 2.1 percent have a doctorate or professional degree
- 23.8 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
- 1.3 percent have less than a high school diploma

Blue collar
- 4.4 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 0.4 percent have a master's degree
- 26.6 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree
- 66.4 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent
- 1.7 percent have less than a high school diploma

Developmental education
- 6,202 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools
-- 3,522 have completed squadron officer school
-- 3,410 have completed intermediate developmental education
-- 1,760 have completed senior developmental education

Executive-level training
- 322 employees have completed executive-level training
-- 23 congressional fellowship programs
-- 270 executive and senior leadership
-- 26 public administration graduate school
-- 8 management graduate school