UK Seafarer Statistics: 2006

This publication includes National Statistics on UK seafarers for 2006.

The main results show that:

• In 2006, there were about 28,100 UK seafarers working regularly at sea, of which 13,600 were deck and engine officers (assuming a retirement age of 62), 800 technical officers, 2,300 catering officers, 10,400 ratings and 1,100 trainees in training.
• The number of certificated UK deck and engine officers in 2006 was 5 per cent lower than in 1997. However, the certification system for deck and engine officers has been expanded in recent years, and if the newly eligible groups are excluded, the overall decrease since 1997 is 12 per cent.
• In 2005/6, there were around 630 new entrant officer cadets, the highest number since the current system began in 1999. Provisional figures for new starts in 2006/7 are higher again, standing at 690.
• The overall number of UK ratings in 2006 was about 9 per cent higher than in 2002, the earliest year for which estimates are available, and about the same as in 2003. Projections have been made to 2022 of the number of UK deck and engine officers, based on assumptions about wastage rates, retirement age and cadet intake. The number of UK deck and engine officers is projected to decline by more than a half by 2022, largely due to the high average age of officers currently in employment.

Notes

1. The report on UK seafarer statistics was produced by London Metropolitan University, in association with the UK Chamber of Shipping and the Institute for Employment Research, Warwick University. It is the third in a series of annual reports commissioned by the Department bringing together all the information currently available on UK seafarer numbers.

2. The information comes from several sources and estimates and assumptions have been made in the process of compiling the aggregates. The year-on-year changes, especially in the earlier years' data, are less robust than the longer term trends.

3. The groups which fall within the expanded scope of the UK certification system since 2004 (under the STCW95 system), who would not have been recorded in 1997, include UK nationals with Certificates of Equivalent Competency (i.e. relevant overseas qualifications), and officers with endorsements relating only to tugs and inshore craft or to yachts. There were about 1,240 such officers in 2006.

4. Paper copies of the report will shortly be available, free of charge, from: Centre for International Transport Management, London Metropolitan University.

5. Also published by DfT today are Provisional port statistics 2006.

Publication details

Published on 24 May 2007 by Transport Statistics.

E-mail maritime.stats@dft.gov.uk for queries concerning this report.

For information about the release of this product see National Statistics Online