Veterans by age

Important information:

Take care when comparing characteristics of UK armed forces veterans and non-veterans, as veterans are mainly male and older. Not adjusting for this fact can lead to misinterpretation, as variables such as health strongly relate to age and sex.

Read more about this quality notice.

Important information:

Estimates for single year of age between ages 90 and 100+ are less reliable than other ages. Estimation and adjustment at these ages was based on the age range 90+ rather than five-year age bands.

Read more about this quality notice.

Summary

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in England and Wales who have previously served in the UK armed forces by their age. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Variable and dataset information

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

  • country - for example, Wales
  • region - for example, London
  • local authority - for example, Cornwall
  • health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
  • statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

UK armed forces veteran indicator

Identifies people who have previously served in the UK armed forces. This includes those who have served for at least one day in armed forces, either regular or reserves, or Merchant Mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations.

Age (B)

A person’s age on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales. Infants aged under 1 year are classified as 0 years of age.

Variables

Population type
All usual residents
Area type
Lower tier local authorities
Coverage
England and Wales
Age (B)
14 Categories
  • Aged 15 years and under
  • Aged 16 to 19 years
  • Aged 20 to 24 years
  • Aged 25 to 29 years
  • Aged 30 to 34 years
  • Aged 35 to 39 years
  • Aged 40 to 44 years
  • Aged 45 to 49 years
  • Aged 50 to 54 years
  • Aged 55 to 59 years
  • Aged 60 to 64 years
  • Aged 65 to 74 years
  • Aged 75 to 84 years
  • Aged 85 years and over
Show fewer categories
UK armed forces veteran indicator
5 Categories
  • Previously served in the UK regular armed forces
  • Previously served in UK reserve armed forces
  • Previously served in both regular and reserve UK armed forces
  • Has not previously served in any UK armed forces
  • Does not apply

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Protecting personal data

Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.

In Census 2021, we:

  • swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
  • added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation

Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.

Version history

Dyddiad y datganiad Reason for update
Version superseded
Original release

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