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Air Force officials publish service demographics

7/20/2009 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- Air Force Personnel Center officials here recently published a demographics report offering a snapshot of the service's active-duty and civilian force.

This data is current as of June 30 and can also be found at http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/library/airforcepersonnelstatistics.asp.

Statistics are rounded to the nearest tenth.

Active-duty demographics:

Snapshot of the Air Force:
- 328,763 individuals are on active duty
-- 65,928 officers and 262,835 enlisted personnel
- The Air Force has 13,367 pilots, 4,136 navigators, 1,316 air battle managers and 30,676 nonrated 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
- Of the force, 38.9 percent are below the age of 26
-- 45.1 percent of enlisted Airmen are below 26 versus 14.2 percent of officers

Gender
- 19.6 percent of the force are women
-- 18.4 percent of the officers are women and 19.8 percent of the enlisted corps are women
-- 57.1 percent of the female officers are line officers; 43 percent are nonline
- 84.8 percent of the male officers are line officers; 15.2 percent are nonline
- The population of women in the Air Force is 64,336
- Women first entered pilot training in 1976, navigator training in 1977 and fighter pilot training in 1993
-- Currently, there are 619 (4.3 percent) female pilots, 262 (5.8 percent) female navigators and 163 air battle managers (11.8 percent)

Race of Airmen
The following percentages, which are self-reported, cover Air Force military members' racial information.
- 0.6 percent reported their race to be American Indian or native Alaskan
- 2.6 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 14.6 percent reported their race to be black or African American
- 1.1 percent reported their race to be native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 73.3 percent reported their race to be white
- 2.1 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 5.8 percent declined to report their race

Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
- 10.1 percent of Airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 86 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"
-- 3.9 percent declined to respond

Marital status
- 59.3 percent of the current force is married, which is 70.8 percent of the officers and 56.4 percent of enlisted Airmen
- There are 17,978 couples in the Air Force with both spouses in the military
-- 1,397 of these are married to members of other military services

Family members
- Active-duty members support 445,854 family members
-- 355,429 family members reside in an Airman's household

Overseas
- 21 percent of the current force is assigned overseas (including Alaska and Hawaii), which includes 9,830 officers and 58,253 enlisted personnel

Total active federal military service
- The average total active federal military service is 11 years for officers and 8 years for enlisted Airmen

Officer academic education
- 53 percent of the officers have advanced or professional degrees
-- 41.9 percent have master's degrees, 9.5 percent have professional degrees and 1.4 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 27.2 percent of company grade officers have advanced degrees, 20.5 percent have master's degrees, 6.4 percent have professional degrees and 0.3 percent have doctorate degrees
-- 85.6 percent of field grade officers have advanced degrees, 69.9 percent have master's degrees, 13.8 percent have professional degrees and 2.9 percent have doctorate degrees

Enlisted academic education
- 70.8 percent have some semester hours toward a college degree
-- 78 percent of Airmen
-- 77 percent of NCOs
-- 25 percent of senior NCOs
- 18.4 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours
-- 1.7 percent of Airmen
-- 19 percent of NCOs
-- 52 percent of senior NCOs
- 5.3 percent have a bachelor's degree
-- 1.9 percent of Airmen
-- 3.9 percent of NCOs
-- 18 percent of senior NCOs
- 0.9 percent have a master's degree
-- .02 percent of Airmen
-- 0.4 percent of NCOs
-- 4.5 percent of senior NCOs
- .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree

Component
- 97 percent of the officers have a regular commission
-- 96.9 percent of the line officers have a regular commission

Developmental education
- 83.6 percent of the officers have completed one or more professional military education or developmental education courses either in residence or by correspondence.
-- 10,067 have completed at least one senior service school or senior developmental education course, 12,800 have completed an intermediate level course while 32,225 have completed Squadron Officer School.

Source of commission
- 21.2 percent of the officers were commissioned through the Air Force Academy, 42.6 percent through ROTC and 19 percent through Officer Training School.
-- The remaining 17.2 percent were commissioned through other sources (direct appointment, etc.).

Civilian employee demographics

Total civilian strength
- There are 149,321 total civilian employees
-- 125,784 U.S. citizen/permanent/full-time employees
-- 23,537 Non-U.S. citizen/permanent/full-time employees

Type of work
- 78 percent are "white collar"
- 22 percent are "blue collar"

Citizenship
- 139,981 U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals
- 9,338 foreign national employees
- Two other non-U.S. employees in the U.S. or a U.S. territory

Air Reserve technicians
- 10,416 air reserve technicians

Age
- The average age is 45.9 years

Length of service
- The average length of service is 14.6 years

Retirement eligibility
- 28 percent become eligible in more than 20 years
- 28.3 percent become eligible in 11 to 20 years
- 17.1 percent become eligible in six to 10 years
- 16.2 percent become eligible in one to five years
- 8.5 percent became eligible zero to five years ago
- 1.9 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 reported their race to be American Indian or native Alaskan
- 5 percent reported their race to be Asian
- 12 percent reported their race to be black or African American
- 0.3 percent reported their race to be native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
- 70.4 percent reported their race to be white
- 0.9 percent reported their race to be more than one of the categories
- 10.3 percent declined to report their race

Ethnicity
"Hispanic or Latino" is considered an ethnic, not a racial, category that is registered separately and in addition to the above racial categories.
- 6.9 percent of airmen call themselves "Hispanic/Latino"
- 93.1 percent "not Hispanic/Latino"

Overseas
- 10.9 percent of the total civilian workforce is assigned overseas
- 42.5 percent are U.S. citizens including U.S. nationals
- 57.5 percent are local nationals

Military service
- 3.2 percent of the civilian work force are retired officers
- 16.3 percent of the civilian work force are retired enlisted
- 28.6 percent of the civilian work force have some military service (not retired)
- 51.9 percent have no military service

Education (white collar)
- 24.9 percent have a bachelor's degree
- 18 percent have a master's degree and 2.1 percent have a doctorate or professional degree
- 22.8 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree
- 28.5 percent have at least a high school education
- 1.9 percent have less than a high school diploma

Education (blue collar)
- 3.9 percent have a bachelor's degree
- 0.3 percent have a master's degree
- 25.6 percent have an associate's degree or have accumulated hours toward a bachelor's degree
- 67.7 percent have at least a high school education or equivalent
- 2.1 percent have less than a high school diploma

Developmental education
- 7,013 civilian employees have completed one or more military schools
-- 3,862 Squadron Officer School
-- 3,602 intermediate developmental education
-- 2,319 senior developmental education

Executive-level training
- 297 employees have completed executive-level training
-- 26 Congressional fellowship programs
-- 245 executive and senior executive leadership
-- 24 public administration graduate school
-- 8 management graduate school

For more information, go to Air Force Personnel Statistics on AFPC's "Ask" Web site.