What does the UK spend on defence and aid?
The UK had 137,482 regular service personnel in July 2026, and spent £13.0bn on overseas aid in 2025 (0.43% of national income).
The detail
Each page has the figures, the trend, a table and the questions people ask.
In numbers
Each measure’s recent trend (up to ten years), with the latest figure.
| Measure | Recent trend | Latest |
|---|---|---|
| UK regular armed forces July 2026 | 137,482 | |
| UK overseas aid spending 2025 | £13.0bn | |
| UK overseas aid as a share of national income 2025 | 0.43% |
At a glance
What’s this?
The number of full-time UK regular personnel in the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, on the first day of each quarter.
What it cannot tell you: These are numbers of people, not their skills or readiness, and some staff in training are counted separately.
What’s this?
What the UK government spent on official development assistance (aid) to help poorer countries, in billions of pounds at the prices of the time.
What it cannot tell you: The latest year is provisional. Aid counts money the government spends, including some spent in the UK on supporting refugees in their first year, so it is not all spent abroad.
What’s this?
UK aid as a share of everything the UK earns (gross national income). The UK's legal target was 0.7% until 2021, then 0.5%, and the government has said it will cut it to 0.3% by 2027.
What it cannot tell you: The latest year is provisional. Aid counts money the government spends, including some spent in the UK on supporting refugees in their first year, so it is not all spent abroad.
Questions people ask
Where do these figures come from?
The Ministry of Defence publishes personnel numbers and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office publishes aid statistics.
Sources: Ministry of Defence, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, World Bank. Updated every night. Each chart has a CSV and a Share button.
See also: Government money