COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: General
Air Force Demographics: Who's Serving?
Air Force News
April 10, 2007
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Air Force Personnel Center here recently published its demographics report offering a snapshot of the service's active-duty and civilian force, as of March 31.Statistics are rounded to the nearest tenth.
Active-duty demographics
-- 337,780 individuals are on active duty composed of 68,675 officers and 269,105 enlisted Airmen.
-- The Air Force has 13,545 pilots, 4,371 navigators, 1,363 air battle managers and 33,188 non-rated line officers in the grades of lieutenant colonel and below.
Age
-- The average age of the officer force is 35; for enlisted Airmen it's 29.
-- 38.7 percent are below the age of 26, which is 45.3 percent of enlisted Airmen and 12.9 percent of officers.
Sex
-- There are 66,410 women in the Air Force, which is 19.7 percent of the force; 18.2 percent of officers and 20 percent of enlisted Airmen.
-- 59 percent of the female officers are line officers; 41 percent are non-line; 85.4 percent of the male officers are line officers and 14.6 percent are non-line.
-- Women first began entering pilot training in 1976, navigator training in 1977 and fighter pilot training in July 1993. Currently there are 593 (4.1 percent) female pilots, 226 (4.8 percent) female navigators and 164 air battle managers (11.7 percent)
Race
The following percentages covers self-reported racial information:
-- 0.6 percent are American Indian or native Alaskan.
-- 2.3 percent are Asian.
-- 14.8 percent are black or African American.
-- 0.8 percent are native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
-- 74.3 percent are white.
-- 1.6 percent are of more than one of the categories.
-- 5.6 percent declined to report their race.
Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is now considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
-- 9.1 percent are "Hispanic/Latino. "
-- 87.8 percent "not Hispanic/Latino. "
-- 3.1 percent declined to respond.
Marital status
-- 60.8 percent of the current force is married, which is 72.6 percent of officers and 57.8 percent of enlisted Airmen. There are 19,597 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military; 1,358 of these are married to members of other military services.
Family members
-- Active duty members supported 516,685 family members; 413,159 family members reside in an Airman's household.
Overseas
-- 21.3 percent of Airmen are assigned overseas (including Alaska and Hawaii), which is composed of 10,466 officers and 61,567 enlisted Airmen.
Total active federal military service
-- The average total active federal military service is 11 years for officers and nine years for enlisted Airmen.
Academic education
-- 50.4 percent of officers have advanced or professional degrees; 40.1 percent have master's degrees, 8.9 percent have professional degrees and 1.3 percent have doctorate degrees.
-- 24 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees; 17.3 percent have master's degrees, 6.5 percent have professional degrees and 0.3 percent have doctorate degrees.
-- 84.8 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees; 70.1 percent have master's degrees, 12.2 percent have professional degrees and 2.6 percent have doctorate degrees.
-- 99.95 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education; 73.5 percent have some semester hours toward a college degree; 16.4 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours; 4.8 percent have a bachelor's degree; 0.8 percent have a master's degree and .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree.
Component
-- 99.4 percent of the officers have a regular commission; 99.6 percent of the line officers have a regular commission.
Developmental education
-- 60.1 percent of the officers have completed one or more professional military education or developmental education course either in residence or by correspondence; 8,939 have completed at least one senior service school or senior developmental education course, 13,633 have completed an intermediate level course while 18,675 have completed Squadron Officer School.
Source of commission
-- 19.4 percent of the officers were commissioned through the U.S. Air Force Academy, 43.1 percent through ROTC and 20.8 percent through Officer Training School. The remaining 16.7 percent were commissioned from other sources (direct appointment, etc.).
Civilian employee demographics
Total civilian strength
-- There are 142,447 civilian employees; 76 percent are "white collar" and 24 percent are "blue collar."
Citizenship
-- 133,276 are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals (9,796 are Air Force Reserve technicians) ; 9,168 are foreign national employees; and three are other non-U.S. employees in the U.S. or a U.S. territory.
Age
-- The average age is 46.6 years.
Length of service
-- The average length of service is 15.6 years.
Retirement eligibility
-- 24 percent become eligible in more than 20 years.
-- 30.2 percent become eligible in 11 to 20 years.
-- 17.8 percent become eligible in six to 10 years.
-- 18 percent become eligible in one to five years.
-- 8.4 percent became eligible in one to five years ago.
-- 1.7 percent became eligible more than five years ago.
Gender
-- 33.4 percent are female and 66.6 percent are male.
Race
The following percentages cover self-reported Air Force civilian members' racial information.
-- 1.1 percent are American Indian or native Alaskan.
-- 4.8 percent are Asian.
-- 11.7 percent are black or African American.
-- 0.2 percent are native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
-- 70.5 percent are white.
-- 0.2 percent are more than one of the categories.
-- 11.4 percent declined to respond.
Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is now considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
-- 7.1 percent are "Hispanic/Latino. "
-- 92.9 percent are "not Hispanic/Latino. "
Overseas
-- 10.8 percent of the total civilian work force are assigned overseas; 40.5 percent are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals; 59.4 percent are local nationals.
Military service
-- 2.6 percent of civilians are retired officers.
-- 15.4 percent of civilians are retired enlisted.
-- 30.2 percent of civilians have some military service.
-- 51.7 percent have no military service.
Education
White collar
-- 25.4 percent of civilians have a bachelor's degree; 16.9 percent have a master's and 2 percent have a doctorate or professional degree; 24.2 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree; 28.6 percent have at least a high school education; and 1.2 percent have less than a high school diploma.
Blue collar
-- 4.4 percent have a bachelor's degree; 0.4 percent have a master's degree; 27.3 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree; 65.7 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent; and 1.8 percent have less than a high school diploma.
Developmental education
-- 5,936 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools; 3,364 have completed Squadron Officer School; 3,292 have completed intermediate developmental education; and 1,545 have completed senior developmental education.
Executive-level training
-- 330 employees have completed executive-level training; 19 Congressional fellowship programs; 276 executive and senior leadership; 27 public administration graduate school; and 12 management graduate school.
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