The total number of personnel in the British forces hit 199,620 at the beginning of this year, with the female members taking up 10.1 percent to reach 20,080, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) has announced.

In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the MoD has released the figures on the percentage of female service personnel in the country's military services.

The regular personnel in the British forces stood at 160,650 on Jan. 1, 2014, and 15,920 of them were female, accounting for 9.9 percent of the total.

The non-regular and reserve personnel of the British forces totaled 38,960, of which 4,150, or 10.7 percent, were female.

In the British Naval Service, there were 38,120 personnel, including trained and untrained regular, full time and reserve personnel, and the female proportion, which was 3,530 in number, constituted 9.3 percent of the total.

Of the 123,690 British Army Service personnel, 11,280 were female, representing 9.1 percent of all.

The Royal Air Force service had a total of 37,810 personnel, and 5,260 of them, or 13.9 percent of all, are women.

British regulars are full time service personnel, including nursing services, according to the MoD.

The non-regular and reserve personnel include Gurkhas, Military Provost Guard Service, Locally Engaged Personnel, Volunteer Reserve, Active Regular Reserve Sponsored Reserve, Mobilized Reservists and full-time Reserve Service personnel.

Since 2010, the British government has been taking steps to cut the size of its armed forces to rein in the country's massive defense budget deficit.

The MoD has announced to reduce its armed forces regular personnel by 33,000, about 19 percent of the total, by 2020, while increasing the trained strength of the reserve forces by 50 percent or more to about 35,000 by 2018.