This is a list of personnel numbers in the Royal Air Force, from its inception in 1918, up until the modern day. Royal Air Force staffing numbers have fluctuated with periodic demand, however, since the end of the Second World War, numbers have decreased steadily and the RAF itself has shrunk in terms of operating bases. Several schemes have been implemented during times of excess staffing to reduce numbers.

History Several programmes were introduced over the life of the Royal Air Force with a view to either reducing, or increasing personnel in line with current threats, or loss of a perceived threat, such as after the First and Second World Wars. Other programmes were developed outside of conflict such as the Options for Change in 1990 (end of the Cold War), and the Defence Costs Study (or Front Line First) in 1994. Post–First World War saw a huge reduction in staffing and aircraft, though recruitment did continue apace. One notable exception was the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) which was disbanded completely in 1920. At Armistice Day in 1918, the fledgling Royal Air Force consisted of a combined personnel of 291,170, which was expected to be reduced to 60,000 by 1 October 1919. In fact, by October 1919, the numbers had dropped to 58,000, increasing fears within the Royal Air Force that it would cease to be an independent air force, and be subsumed into either the Navy or the Army. In 1925, the government announced plans to temporarily cease the expansion of the RAF, and it dropped in numbers between 1926 and 1927 from 33,500 to 33,009.

In response to German re-armament, particularly that of the Luftwaffe, an expansion of the RAF was announced in May 1935, stating a near trebling of aircraft and staff by the end of the next financial year (31 March 1937), resulting in an additional 22,500 personnel.

A re-assessment of necessary staffing after the end of the Cold War, prompted a Defence review called Options for Change. This scaled the Air Force at 75,000, having previously had a strength up to 1990 of 88,500. However, further cuts were implemented during 1993 which were not part of the original Options paper after natural wastage did not produce enough of a drop in numbers, and with the additional loss of one Tornado squadron in the meantime; estimates were recalculated to 70,000. Large swathes of redundancies were served upon all three strands of the UK military structure in 1995. This saw at least 9,000 redundancies, of which, 7,500 were in the Royal Air Force alone.

Full time personnel were offset in loss of numbers by the uplift of Reserve Personnel as per a government directive to increase the number of reservists. This can be seen by the increase of reservists, of which the percentage of reservists expanded two and half times over between October 2013 and October 2021.

Example personnel numbers

+DateNumbersNotesRefNovember 1918291,170To reduce to around 60,000 by late 1919April 1919149,19617,267 officers, 108,753 other ranks, the remainder were WRAFOctober 191958,000January 192026,682After the demobilisation, the strength of the RAF was one tenth of what it was at the Armistice192733,009Down from 35,300 in 1926192928,6383,338 officers, 25,300 other ranksJanuary 193430,3813,334 officers, 25,170 other ranks, 1,877 apprentices and cadetsMay 193632,456Increase during the expansion periodSeptember 1939175,392Around 118,000 estimated to be in all areas of operation apart from IndiaApril 19441,185,91388,615 officers, 922,892 other ranks, 174,406 WRAFMay 19451,079,8351952270,000April 1958210,000A cut of 20,000 personnel from April 1957.1960163,80073,000 civilians1962148,0001970108,80015,400 civilians197696,300September 197884,792September 197987,392198191,965September 198289,254April 198993,10014,400 officers, 72,500 other ranks, 6,200 WRAFJuly 199089,000199370,000April 199757,000Planned reduction to 56,000 by 1999200052,000December 200448,900Defence cuts estimated that a reduction of almost 8,000 to 41,000 by 2008January 201836,960January 202132,920April 202233,320The numbers do not consist of reservist personnel. The Defence in a Competitive Age paper from the UK Government expects the RAF to number 31,750.January 202635,300

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