launches more entry places but there are fewer and fewer candidates

1. Armed Forces Personnel Report
2. Alert: interest in the army is decreasing
3. Decrease in applications to become an officer
4. A “cause for concern” “analyzed urgently”
5. Non-commissioned officers: fall from year to year
6. Insufficient rebound of troops and sailors
7. From 27.9 candidates per place to 4.2

Armed Forces Personnel Report

He Military Life Observatory It is a collegial, consultative and consultative body which integrates “famous personalities in the areas of defense, human resources or fundamental rights and public freedoms”, appointed by the Cortes Générales.

They are responsible for analyzing “questions that affect the exercise of power”. fundamental rights and civil liberties of members of the armed forces and promote actions that contribute to better regulation of military status“.

This observatory carries out barracks visits, meets the commanders of the armed forces and with professional associations, and prepares each year a report in which he addresses various subjects on Armed Forces personnel: entry, training, promotions, decorations, reconciling family and professional life, criminal procedures before the military jurisdiction, disciplinary files and sanctions, complaints for sexual and workplace harassment, salaries, prevention of professional risks, etc.

The latest memory report from the Observatory of Military Life corresponds to the year 2024. Includes a chapter on “access to a military career and recruitment” in which some data can be read alarmingespecially since in theory the Ministry of Defense intends to slightly increase the number of armed forces.

Alert: interest in the profession of soldier is decreasing

In this section you can read words like “concern”, “urgent”, “decreasing trend”, “very worrying”, “worst selection”.

Digital Confidentiality already said that the 2023 report revealed that The proportion of candidates for entry into the troop and sailor ladder compared to the places offered has collapsed in just ten years..

In the year 2013the Ministry of Defense recorded 27.9 candidates for each place entry into the Troops and Sailors. He had launched 1,500 places.

Since then, the trend has been negative. With ups and downs in recent years The ministry offered more places, but this did not increase the number of applicants. This caused the ratio of candidates to places to fall: In 2023, there were only 4.3 candidates per place. A year ago, in 2022, it was 8.6.

The analysis of the Observatory of Military Life, a year later, is not more flattering. The 2024 report shows declining interest in joining the armed forces at all levels.

Decrease in applications to become an officer

The document collects data from 2024 on direct access to officer ranks of all branches of the Armed Forces.

“Globally, there is a decrease“requests for admission”8.5% compared to 2023going from 3,269 applications then to 2,993 in 2024.”

A graphic that accompanies the text dates back a few years. Applications to become an officer of the armed forces They went from 3,842 (2021) to 3,401 (2022), 3,269 (2023) and 2,993 (2024).

A “cause for concern” “analyzed urgently”

THE reduction in the ratio of candidates per place was remarkable: from 4.59 to 3.55 in a single year. “It should be noted that in 2021just three years earlier, this ratio was 6.25 candidates by position”, underlines the Observatory of Military Life.

The phenomenon therefore seems clear: From year to year, interest in becoming an officer declined. of the Army, Navy, Air Force or Joint Corps, according to official data provided by the General Directorate of Recruitment and Military Educationof the Ministry of Defense.

“From the above, we deduce that the interest in accessing the ranks of officers of the armed forces should start to be a cause for concern“, warns the Observatory of Military Life, which emphasizes that it is “It is urgent to analyze the causes of this increasingly rare interest”.

One might think that the problem only arises at the officer level, but This is a general problem at all scales.

Non-commissioned officers: fall from year to year

Something similar happens in the non-commissioned officerseven if the figures are more modest.

The report shows another chart which again reveals a descending scale. The big drop occurred from 2021 to 2022: Defense recorded 1,883 applications for admission by direct access to non-commissioned officer ranks in 2021, and a year later, they were almost 300 fewerexactly 1,595.

From there followed the fall to lower figures: 1,569 in 2023 and 1,507 in 2024. The vacant positions offered remained almost unchanged: 225, 236, 244, 239.

Insufficient rebound of troops and sailors

The scale of troops and sailors recorded a positive rebound in 2024 of applications in 2024, but the report still sees this as a negative point.

Were 37,757 young people who applied to become soldiers or sailors 2021. There were slightly fewer requests a year later, in 2022: 36,771a decrease of 986 interested parties.

But the big fall came a year later. In 2023 Defense received 29,368that’s to say 7,403 fewer applications for admission.

From this data rebounded to 33,777 in 2024A growth of more than 4,400.

But these figures must be compared with the positions proposed, or this is what the members of the Observatory of Military Life did when preparing the report.

“We see that the number of the places offered increased in 2024 by 18% (going from 6,826 to 8,062). “The ministry has eliminated more places”, but This increase in places does not lead to an increase in applications proportional to them.“.

From 27.9 candidates per place to 4.2

The 2024 report shows the descending line of the ratio between the number of candidates and the places offered.

THE orient yourself what he has already highlighted Digital Confidentiality has not been reversed, if anything has been written off.

“The collapse of this ratio”which reached nearly 28 candidates per place in 2013, “This has barely been corrected in the years 2021 and 2022”when there was a bouncenumbers close to 4, to 5.8 and even 8.6 in 2022.

In 2023, it fell to the minimum of the period analyzed, 4.3 candidates for each position offered. The following year the negative mark was broken: only 4.2 applications for vacant positions.

This trend “signals a very worrying proportion», according to the report of the Military Life Observatory on the situation of Armed Forces personnel in 2024, “not only due to the lower number of candidates, but also for the worst choice that could be made between them“.

One last piece of information. In 2024 Defense offered 8,062 places entry level for troops and sailors. There were 33,777 applications, a lot, but once selected, they went through the Troop Training Centers”7,116 students signed the initial pledge“, since there was the lowest.

SO, The Armed Forces do not really include the numbers of soldiers and sailors that the Ministry of Defense calls up each year.but significantly lower figures.