Army: Young People
(asked on 12th November 2018) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of people under 18 years of age that applied to join the army in the financial year 2014-15; and how many of those people have since started army training.
The number of people under 18 years old who applied to join the Army in financial years 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18 and who have since started basic training before 1 October 2018 are detailed in the table below.
Financial Year | U18 Applications | Of which started basic training |
2013-2014 | 14,050 | 2,790 |
2014-2015 | 17,120 | 3,000 |
2016-2017 | 20,370 | 2,350 |
Figures are for Regular soldiers who were under the age of 18 at the time of their application. Some will have turned 18 before starting basic training.
Some of the applicants above will still be in the process of joining the Army.
Please note that these figures are single Service estimates and are not official statistics produced by Defence Statistics. They have been rounded to the nearest 10.