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By law, Active Component recruits must be between 17 and 35 years old; 17-year-olds must have parental permission to enlist.(14)  Within the 17- to 35-year age range, the Services have different age ceilings.  The Army and Navy accept applicants up to age 35; the Air Force accepts recruits prior to their 28^th birthday, and the Marine Corps age limit is 29.

The age distribution of FY 1997 active duty NPS accessions is shown in Table 2.4.  Approximately, 88 percent of new recruits are 18- to 24-year-olds, compared to about 34 percent of the comparable civilian population.  The Marine Corps enlists the greatest percentage of 17- and 18-year-old recruits (44 percent) and the smallest percentage of those over age 21 (12 percent).  The Army has the greatest proportion of recruits older than age 21 (26 percent) and the smallest proportion of 17- and 18-year-old recruits (32 percent).

 The right column of Table 2.4 shows the numerical rate at which civilian youth in each age group enlisted in the Armed Services in FY 1997.  For example, an average of 16.1 of every 1,000 18-year-olds and 1.5 of every 1,000 24-year-olds enlisted in FY 1997.

Table 2.4.  Age of FY 1997 Active Component NPS Accessions, by Service, and Civilians 17-35 Years Old (Percent)
Age	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	Air Force	DoD	17-35 Year-Old Civilians	Number of Accessions per 1,000 Civilians
17	4.3	4.1	5.2	3.8	4.3	5.3	2.1
18	28.0	31.3	39.1	32.4	31.6	5.1	16.1
19	20.9	24.1	25.8	24.5	23.2	5.2	11.6
20	12.5	13.8	11.6	14.4	13.0	4.9	6.9
21	8.5	8.1	6.4	8.6	8.0	4.7	4.4
22	6.2	5.5	4.1	6.1	5.6	4.7	3.1
23	4.8	4.0	2.6	3.7	4.0	4.6	2.2
24	3.7	2.6	1.8	2.6	2.9	5.0	1.5
>24	11.2	6.6	3.5	3.9	7.4	60.6	0.3
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	2.6
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. Also see Appendix Table B-1 (Age by Service and Gender). Source:  Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 1996 - September 1997.

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14. 10 U.S.C. 505. go back