Deaths in the UK Regular Armed Forces

This section provides summary statistics on deaths among the UK Regular Armed Forces between 1999 and 2008. The information was compiled from data held by DASA (Health Information) on 26 February 2009 and has previously been published in the National Statistic Deaths in the UK Regular Armed Forces 2008.

The information on deaths presented here are for the Regular Armed Forces, including all trained and untrained personnel. DASA have included Non-Regulars who died on deployment since they are classified as Regular personnel for the duration of their overseas deployment. The Naval Service includes both Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel. The data here exclude the Home Service of the Royal Irish Regiment, full time reservists, Territorial Army and Naval Activated Reservists since DASA do not receive routine notifications of all deaths among reservists and non-regulars, and because reliable denominator data (i.e. the population size) required to produce interpretable statistics are not available.

In order to compare time trends and to take into account the different age and gender structures of the three Services, rates have been age and gender standardised. In order to facilitate comparisons with previously published reports, data has been standardised to the 2006 Armed Forces population. The 2006 population is used because all strengths data for 2007 and 2008 are provisional and subject to review following the introduction of a new personnel administration system for the three Services.

To enable comparisons with deaths in the UK population, Standardised Mortality Ratios (SMR), adjusted for age, gender and year, were calculated. An SMR is defined as the ratio of the number of deaths observed in the study population to the number of deaths expected if the study population had the same age and gender-specific rates as the standard population in each specific year multiplied by 100 by convention. An SMR over (or under) 100 indicates a higher (or lower) number of observed deaths in the UK Regular Armed Forces than expected (based on UK population rates). An SMR of 100 implies that there is no difference in rates when comparing the UK Regular Armed Forces population with the UK population.

Annual strength data for UK Regular Armed Forces personnel were obtained for the period 1984-2005 from the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency (AFPAA). Strength data for 2006 were obtained from both AFPAA and the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system. Strength data for 2007 and 2008 were obtained from JPA.

Data on the size of the UK general population and the numbers of deaths by age, gender and year were obtained from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Data for 2008 were not available at the time of publication; therefore figures from 2007 were used as an estimate for 2008 as the year on year variation in the UK population figures is unlikely to affect the findings.

Further information can be found in the National Statistic Deaths in the UK Regular Armed Forces 2008 which is published on the DASA website.