Last week, the Home Office published their annual Police Workforce Statistics update for England and Wales. As usual, it caused a stir among officers and the public alike.
We now know how many officers there are in 2025, how many are choosing to leave the service and for what reasons, the volume of promotions, changes in strength between the ranks, diversity, and much more. The results are eye-opening and might surprise you!
In this ‘Stats Corner’ interest piece blog, I give impartial insights into the England and Wales police workforce strength, focusing on officers but also sharing trends staff, specials and volunteers. I also compare officer strength across the UK and Ireland too, to see how things have changed given the increasing population. I include promotions, ranks, diversity, turnover, joiners, resignations, officer experience, long term trends and much more, going beyond the headlines published by the Home Office.
I’m publishing in one go for you, with less commentary than my detailed four-part series on the 2024 police workforce release. But I include all the key charts, along with the longest record of police officer numbers you’ll find anywhere online, going back to the 1940s!
Police Officer Numbers: Key Headlines and Takeaways
Before we get into the details, here’s the headlines answering the most important questions people have about police strength…
- There are 146,442 officers across the 43 forces of England and Wales, 1% fewer than 2024. The Met Police reduced by over 1,000 officers. Those in Welsh forces increased slightly.
- All the reduction is in the front line (especially the ‘visible front line’) roles and PC ranks.
- The number of Chief Officers increased by 7% to a new record of 263 FTE.
- Women now represent over 36% of officers, with black and minority ethnic (BAME) comprising over 8%, the highest for each protected characteristic.
- Elsewhere, PSNI officer strength is down too while Police Scotland has recovered a little from last year’s record low.
- In terms of England and Wales promotions, 36% were female and 8% BAME, matching the current workforce profile. Overall promotions volume was slightly down again.
- Dismissals reached a new record high of 429 FTE. Meanwhile a record number of officers are in Professional Standards departments, now standing at 1,834 FTE.
- Voluntary resignation remains the largest reason for leaving, albeit the volume has come down slightly from 2024’s record high. Two thirds of these came from those with under 5 years’ service.
- Specials, PCSOs and Volunteers are all down again, continuing their long term reductions.
- 32% of officers have under 5 years’ service, down from the peak of 36% during ‘Uplift’. The pre-Uplift norm was around 25%.
Now let’s dive a little deeper into these headline figures…
How Many Police Officers are in the UK in 2025?
So how many police officers are there across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2025? The answer is around 183,000, as I show in the graph above. That’s nearly a couple of thousand down on the 2024 UK officer strength.
The biggest reduction came from the Met, with several other English forces somewhat lower and PSNI down a few hundred. Likewise other national forces like the MOD police were down a few hundred and BTP down a little. Officer strength in Wales was up by a little (12 FTE) while the National Crime Agency strength increased by 100 (albeit NCA count their officers a bit differently).
The Home Office reports that 95.7% of officer strength were ‘available for duty’, meaning those excluding long term absences. This is a decline from 96.7% in 2022. Northamptonshire had the highest rate available for duty at 97.3%, while Cumbria, North Yorkshire, and Gwent all had the lowest at 93.4%.
As part of the ‘unavailable for duty’, last year saw a new record for those officers on long term sick leave at 2.2%. This is almost double the rate observed in 2010 and has been on an increasing trend since then. As an aspiring leader, how are you inspiring wellbeing?
National Comparisons of Officer Strength Vs. Population
At Rank Success, I’ve compiled for you the longest record of officer strength across England and Wales you’ll find anywhere. This now goes back almost 80 years, to 1946. Above I show the 1% reduction compared to 2024 in the context of the annual changes prior. The ‘austerity’ and ‘uplift’ years clearly stand out in recent history.
Below shows the officer strength in England and Wales against the population. The population in recent years has been fast-growing, fuelled by immigration of over 1 million per year, far outweighing emigration. Like other public services, policing has clearly struggled to keep up with this surge. Uplift saw some recovery, but with an additional 707,000 people in just the last year and a now reducing workforce, officers will no doubt be stretched.
This means the officer strength per 100,000 population has decreased, especially in the last two years, now standing at just 237 per 100k following the recent ONS population figures. This decline keeps England and Wales at the lowest officer levels in the UK and Ireland, as demonstrated below.
While PSNI has been in a several year steep decline in officer strength, the bleak long term picture for Police Scotland took a slight turn for the better according to 2025 figures. By comparison, the officer strength per 100k population for An Garda Síochána (where aspiring officers have also been successful at promotion with Rank Success!) in Ireland has remained relatively steady in the last 10 years, after its own surges and falls in officer numbers.
Big Increase in Chief Officers, Reduction in Constable Ranks…
Coming back to the England and Wales officer strength, the trends between the ranks demonstrate where forces are promoting and prioritising their budgets. I share the long term trend charts below.
The reduction of over 1,000 officers nationally came entirely from the Police Constable rank which reduced by 2%, around 1,900 FTE. The other Federated ranks between Sergeant to Chief Inspector together increased by around 1%, around 400 FTE. The Superintending ranks remained stable on last year, while Chief Officer (ACC and above) strength increased by 7% to 263 FTE, beating 2024’s record of 245.
Overall, 77% of officers are now at the rank of Constable, down from 78% last year. This varies by force, with the top three forces (Derbyshire, Cleveland, West Yorkshire) having between 80-81% at this rank. This stands at 72-74% for officer strength of the bottom three forces (City of London, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall).
Police Promotions See Slight Decline
Police promotion is always a challenge for aspiring officers. That’s why Rank Success exists, to support cops to achieve success and level the playing field of promotion. 2.5% of officers (3,725 headcount) attained a promotion in the year to 2025. This was slightly down again on the prior year, pointing to the competitive nature of promotion.
With Rank Success, I tailor my support to officers aspiring to the Sergeant and Inspecting ranks. Below I’ve picked out the long term annual promotion figures for each of these ranks. All showed decline for last year, but Inspectors in particular saw the lowest volume of promotions in five years.
Promotion Diversity: 36% of all promotions were female, the highest in the annual records published by the Home Office and on a par with the 2025 officer workforce gender profile. 8% of promoted officers were from a Black or Minority Ethnic (BAME, excluding White minorities) group, again showing parity with the 8% BAME officer workforce profile.
Notable Forces: The Met Police promoted 767 individuals last year, half their 2021/22 peak and comparable to their 2006 to 2008 volumes. Warwickshire Police is a force at the extreme end of the scale, promoting nobody last year according to the Home Office figures.
Promotions in Avon and Somerset, Durham, Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Wales, Sussex, TVP, and West Mercia were also relatively low compared to the past two decades. Conversely, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, and Lancashire promoted record high numbers of officers. City of London Police, Essex, and Norfolk also promoted relatively high volumes of officers compared to those forces’ history.
Police Officer Leavers and Joiners
While the leaver rate of officers seems to have stabilised at 6.0%, that for Police Staff and PCSOs remains very high, at 9.4% and 13.4% respectively. Leaver rates for female officers remain slightly under that for males, while minority ethnic officers have been slightly above the general rate since 2023.
The total volume of officer leavers was 8,795 FTE, similar but slightly lower than that for the years ending 2023 and 2024. Joiner volume has also settled down to pre-Uplift levels.
Voluntary resignation remains the largest reason for leaving in recent years, albeit the increasing trend appears to have reversed for 2025. While voluntary resignation used to account for under a third of leavers, this is now approaching double that. In turn, two-thirds of the resignations came from officers with under five years’ service.
The volume of retirements continues to decline over the longer term, now just over 3,000 officers from a peak of over 5,000 in 2018. Dismissals reached a new peak of 429 officers, beating last year’s record of 365. This might have something to do with the big increase in Professional Standards departments as we’ll see later.
Related to officer turnover is the length of service for serving officers, indicating levels of experience. As per the Home Office chart below, the proportion of officers with under five years’ service unsurprisingly grew significantly under the years of ‘Uplift’, which is now starting to tail off as they move into the 5-10 year bracket. At 32% of all officers, the cohort with under five years’ service remains over double what it was in 2016 (14%).
Police Officers Being Moved Away from Front Line
The overall headline workforce figures hide interesting changes in officers allocated to different functions by forces. While overall officer strength was slightly down, that for operational policing functions was far higher.
Local Policing functions saw the biggest reduction, falling by over 5,000 officers in just a year, all coming from Response, which reduced by over 10%. Those assigned to ‘Other’ functions increased by over 3,500. See last year’s police officer functions blog for what counts as ‘front line’ and others.
While this shows an overview of broad functions, the specifics tell a different story. For example, while the broad ‘Criminal Justice’ function has increased, those assigned specifically to Custody are the same as 2015 levels, at around 2,600 officers. Roads Policing continues its decline, now having 1,100 less officers assigned to ‘Traffic Units’ (total now 3,889 FTE).
Support functions are now nearly double the officer strength they were in 2015 (the earliest comparable data for broad functions). Training, Professional Standards, HR, ICT and Corporate Development / Performance Review account for the increase. Here’s an example of how the specific function of Professional Standards has grown since 2012, reflecting the prioritisation of officer strength by force leaders.
Diversity of Police Officers
Women now comprise over 36% of all officers, as per the Home Office published chart above. This is a new record high for England and Wales forces and the highest proportion in the UK and Ireland. Most of this relates to the rank of Constable being at 38%. Most leadership ranks for officers remain at between 29-30%. This 4-part blog on women in police leadership aims to support those seeking promotion and a confidence boost.
Interestingly, the 1% reduction in overall officer workforce all came from the male side, while female officer strength increased slightly. Police officer joiners were almost at parity with the population last year. 44.2% officers joining last year were women. This is a new record, breaking the prior 42.8% record joining in the year to March 2024.
Ethnic Minority (excluding White minorities) officers in England and Wales form 8.5% of the available strength. This compares to a population of 18.3%, albeit the ‘working age’ population is lower than that at around 15%. Even so, to close this gap (as per the goals of the Police Race Action Plan) within a decade clearly requires actions beyond legal ‘positive action’ schemes.
And while minority ethnic officers make up 8.5% of the whole police officer workforce, this is heavily skewed by the PC ranks. Diversity decreases as you go through the ranks, being 6-7% for the Federated leadership ranks of Sergeant to Chief Inspector, 6% for the Superintending ranks, then only 4.5% among Chief Officers.
The age profile of the workforce is similar to that reported in 2024. The Home Office chart below shows very few officers being over 55, compared to staff groups. For officers, the age profile drastically changes through the ranks, with the overwhelming majority being in the 41-55 age bracket by the time you reach Inspector.
Another protected characteristic of officers reported by the Home Office is Religion / Belief. Only 2/3 of officers’ beliefs are known, but of those it seems those without a particular religion or belief are overrepresented compared to the 2021 Census for England and Wales, and those with a religion are underrepresented. Here’s the highlights:
- Christian: 41.4% (Census 46.2%)
- Muslim: 2.5% (Census 6.5%)
- Sikh: 0.8% (Census 0.9%)
- Hindu: 0.4% (Census 1.7%)
- Buddhist: 0.3% (Census 0.5%)
- Jewish: 0.3% (Census 0.5%)
- Others: 3.0% (Census 6.5%)
- No Religion: 51.3% (Census 37.2%)
The workforce statistics also report on Sexual Orientation, again with only 2/3 of officers known (possibly pointing to the limited employee diversity data recording of many forces). Of those known, the protected characteristic of straight/heterosexual is underrepresented, while those of gay, lesbian and bisexual orientations are overrepresented in the workforce compared to the 2021 Census…
- Heterosexual or Straight: 91.6% (Census 96.6%)
- Gay or Lesbian: 4.9% (Census 1.6%)
- Bisexual: 3.3% (Census 1.4%)
- Others: 0.3% (Census 0.3%)
Police Staff, PCSOs, Specials and Volunteers
While officer numbers in England and Wales declined last year, forces invested more of their increased budgets into civilian staff. The total now stands at nearly 82,000 FTE, a full 1,000 more than the prior year and continuing the rise since 2018.
As I reported last year however, volunteer officers and staff, along with PCSOs, are seriously diminishing. That decline went further in 2025, reaching the lowest for decades. PCSOs are less than half their 2008-2010 peak, while Specials headcount is a meagre quarter of the 2012 peak of over 20,000.
Closing Thoughts and Promotion Support…
“I’m so happy to say I was successful! Your Inspector Masterclass bundle really helped move my thinking & evidence up a notch from last time I tried. Money well spent. Thank you for putting it together & the free blogs/videos too.” – Lucy
I hope you’ve found this spread of impartial insights into policing’s strength useful. Importantly, what are your thoughts on this and what would you say explains these changes over time?
There’s plenty of intelligence and evidence to explore on why officers are leaving or what needs to change, with pay being a big issue. Look for example in national wellbeing surveys or the PFEW Pay and Morale survey. Sometimes forces are even bold enough to ask their own officers and staff what matters.
And if you want support on your police promotion and leadership aspirations to help improve policing for the future, I’m just a simple call or text away. Whether you’re confused by the CVF, wondering how to shape your evidence, need to hone your interview / presentation skills, or even wondering what the new SIPP promotion scheme entails, Rank Success has you covered and more, with cop-friendly learning and rank-specific toolkits to support any budget.
Kind Regards, Steve
Seeking police promotion? Want a MASSIVE head start right now? Hit the ground running with your personal digital promotion toolkit, and/or my market-leading Police Promotion Masterclass and CVF explainers. There’s nothing else like it to effectively prepare you for success in your leadership aspirations. You can also contact me to arrange more personal coaching support. Or try my podcast for your ongoing police leadership CPD covering a range of fascinating subjects.