About the Civil Service
Civil Service statistics
Information about staffing in the Civil Service has been collected and published since 1950, and data since 1970 is available to view on this site. In this section, you'll find the latest figures and links to more detailed information.
Staffing statistics used to be collected by a team in the Cabinet Office, but this responsibility has recently passed to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS now publishes a report every year on the profile of Civil Servants, as well as headline numbers of how many people work in the Civil Service every quarter.
The latest figures
Some headline facts from ONS reports are shown below, with the date of the report they are taken from in brackets.
There are currently 490,000 (FTE) civil servants, of which 53 per cent are women (QPSES Q1, 2008).
8.3 per cent of civil servants are from an ethnic minority, while 6.7 per cent have some kind of disability (Civil Service Statistics Sept 2007).
One in five of civil servants work part-time. (QPSES Q1, 2008)
73 per cent of civil servants work in one of the four main departments - the DWP, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence and HM Revenue & Customs. (QPSES Q1 2008)
Check when the next reports are due by clicking on the calendar on the right of this page. And check our glossary if you're unsure about any terms, or if you want to find out more about the different reports.
- More information about these and other staffing statistics. [External website]
