As of 2021, there were over 200,000 living United States veterans who served in the Second World War. The Department of Veteran Affairs projects that the number of living veterans will decline rapidly in the fifteen years until 2036, at which point just a few hundred Americans who served in the war will be still alive. The passing of the "Greatest Generation" is seen as symbolic by some, as for many people they represented the era when the United States' power on the world stage was at its greatest. The Second World war is particularly remembered as a "just" war in the U.S., as the United States was seen as fighting for democracy and self-determination, and against the tyrannies of Fascism, Nazism, and Japanese Imperialism.

The United States' involvement in the Second World War

World War II marked the peak in military enlistments in U.S. history, with over 16 million service members serving worldwide during the conflict. The U.S. joined the war in 1941 due to Imperial Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, before joining the European theater of the war in 1944 during the Invasion of Normandy. The U.S. military played a vital role in the defeat of Nazi Germany on the Western Front in May 1945, while the Soviet Red Army defeated the Wehrmacht in the East. The U.S. was also vital in the defeat of Fascist Italy, as they had led an allied invasion force onto the Italian peninsula from Northern Africa in September 1943. The final action of the war took place in the Asian theater of war, as Imperial Japan was the last of the Axis powers to concede defeat to the Allies. The United States effectively ended the war with the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, leading to as many as a quarter of a million deaths. It remains to this day the sole use of atomic weapons in an active conflict.

As of 2020, there were approximately 6.3 million veterans of the United States military still alive who served during the period of the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1975. Around 8.75 million service personnel served during the war, with 40% of those stationed in Vietnam and the surrounding Southeast Asian countries. Veterans of this conflict reflect the largest cohort of American veterans still alive in terms of service era.

Vietnam War veterans may still suffer from long-term health effects of their service during the war. These range from mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, to health conditions caused by exposure to toxic chemicals used to clear trees and plants in the Vietnamese jungle during the war. Since the signing of the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 by President Donald J. Trump, March 29th is designated in the U.S. as National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

In 2022, about 1.4 million veterans were living in Texas - the most out of any state. Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia rounded out the top five states with the highest veteran population in that year.

As of 2021, there are approximately 9.5 million U.S. military veterans of major conflicts from 1941 to 1991 still living. The largest of these cohorts is from the Vietnam War, followed by the Gulf War and Korean War. The oldest living veterans today are those that served in the Second World War, which the United States was involved in from 1941 until 1945, with the last remaining U.S. veteran of the First World War having died in 2018.

The Department of Veteran Affairs is responsible for administering benefits, health care and other services to assist veterans in transitioning back into civilian life. In recent decades the focus of these services has turned towards areas in which veterans are particularly known to have poor life outcomes, such as above-average suicide rates, mental health conditions such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and homelessness.

Graph and download economic data for Population Level - Veterans, Vietnam-Era and Earlier Wartime Periods, 18 Years and over (LNU00077884) from Sep 2008 to May 2025 about korean war, Vietnam Era, World War, 18 years +, veterans, civilian, population, and USA.

Context

16 million Americans fought in the Second World War but today, their ranks are dwindling. U.S. men and women who fought in the conflict are now in their 90s (some are much older) with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reporting that approximately 325,000 remain alive today, a significant decline on the 939,000 alive in 2015. With an average of 245 dying every day (calculated by the VA before the COVID-19 outbreak), it raises a sad and depressing question: when will the U.S. lose the last of its WWII veterans?

https://www.statista.com/chart/13989/when-the-us-will-lose-its-wwii-veterans/?utm_source=Statista+Global&utm_campaign=09f67d0f67-All_InfographTicker_daily_COM_AM_KW46_2020_We&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_afecd219f5-09f67d0f67-310595102

Content

The Department of Veterans Affairs uses a deterministic actuarial projection model to estimate and project the WWII veteran population up to 2045. Its findings have been visualized on the following infographic which shows how the number of living WWII vets will steadily decline over the coming years with the last one expected to pass away in 2043. That means that time is quickly running out to hear their stories about the war and to honor their sacrifice. The last American veteran of the First World War, Frank Buckles, passed away in February 2011 aged 110.

Acknowledgements

https://www.statista.com/chart/13989/when-the-us-will-lose-its-wwii-veterans/?utm_source=Statista+Global&utm_campaign=09f67d0f67-All_InfographTicker_daily_COM_AM_KW46_2020_We&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_afecd219f5-09f67d0f67-310595102 https://www.statista.com/chart/13989/when-the-us-will-lose-its-wwii-veterans

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

Inspiration

Veterans Day: November 11

Data from America's War factsheet with only those who served and living

This map shows the percent of population who are veterans. This pattern is shown by states, counties, and tracts. The data is from the most current American Community Survey (ACS) data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Veterans are men and women who have served (even for a short time), but are not currently serving, on active duty in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or the Coast Guard, or who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. People who served in the National Guard or Reserves are classified as veterans only if they were ever called or ordered to active duty.The pop-up highlights the breakdown of veterans by gender.Zoom to any area in the country to see a local or regional pattern, or use one of the bookmarks to see distinct patterns of poverty through the US. Data is available for the 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.The data comes from this ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World layer, which is part of a wider collection of layers that contain the most up-to-date ACS data from the Census. The layers are updated annually when the ACS releases their most current 5-year estimates. Visit the layer for more information about the data source, vintage, and download date for the data.

In 2022, about 3.23 million veterans in the United States were male and between 35 and 54 years of age. In the same age group, about 627,148 females were veterans in that year.

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides official estimates and projections of the Veteran population using the Veteran Population Projection Model (VetPop). Based on the latest model VetPop2023 and the most recent national survey estimates from the 2023 American Community Survey 1-Year (ACS) data, the projected number of Veterans living in the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico for fiscal years, 2023 to 2025, are allocated to Urban and Rural areas. As defined by the Census Bureau, Rural encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included within an Urban area (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural.html). This table contains the Veteran estimates by urban/rural, sex, age group, and race. Note: rounding to the nearest 1,000 is always appropriate for VetPop estimates.

This Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS) intuitive web application displays the current and projected future veterans population from fiscal year (FY) 2020 through FY2050 by State and County boundaries. The source of the Veteran population projections come from the Veteran Population Projection Model 2020 (VetPop2020), which provides the latest official Veteran population projection from the DVA. VetPop2020 is a deterministic projection model developed by the office of Predictive Analytics to estimate and project the Veteran Population from FY2020 to FY2050. Using the best available Veteran data at the end of FY2020 as the base population. VetPop2020 projects living and deceased Veteran counts by key demographic characteristics such as age, gender, period of service, and race/ethnicity at various geographic levels for the next 30 years. See VetPop2020 A Brief Description.

The Office of Data Governance and Analysis (DGA) creates statistical data for various Veteran related projects. This table displays the count and percent, by county, of Veterans who are farmers and/or dairymen comparative for the entire state's population of Veteran farmers or dairymen in California for 2015. The data was created from our administrative database U.S. Veterans Eligibility Trends and Statistics (USVETS), for the recent event Apps for Ag Hackathon. The U.S. Veterans Eligibility Trends and Statistics (USVETS) is the single integrated dataset of Veteran demographic and socioeconomic data. It provides the most comprehensive picture of the Veteran population possible to support statistical, trend and longitudinal analysis. USVETS has both a static dataset, represents a single authoritative record of all living and deceased Veterans, and fiscal year datasets, represents a snapshot of a Veteran for each fiscal year. USVETS consists mainly of data sources from the Veterans Benefit Administration, the Veterans Health Administration, the Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, and other data sources including commercial data sources. This dataset contains information about individual Veterans including demographics, details of military service, VA benefit usage, and more. The dataset contains one record per Veteran. It includes all living and deceased Veterans. USVETS data includes Veterans residing in states, US territories and foreign countries. VA uses this database to conduct statistical analytics, predictive modeling, and other data reporting. USVETS includes the software, hardware, and the associated processes that produce various VA work products and related files for Veteran analytics.

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides official estimates and projections of the Veteran population using the Veteran Population Projection Model (VetPop). Based on the available information through September 30, 2020, the latest model VetPop2020 estimated the Veteran population for the period from 2000 to 2020. This data table shows the number of living Veterans at the end of each fiscal year from 2000 to 2020 by race, ethnicity, gender, and age group for Veterans residing in the U.S. (50 states and D.C.).

This data set consists of one row per federal fiscal year (FY) from FY 2005 - FY 2019, and reports the number and percent of users each of seven VA programs for Veterans who were in service at any time between August 2, 1990, and September 10, 2001, the dates of the Pre-9/11 Gulf War era. The denominator of percent is the number of living Veterans in the FY. The number and percent of users is cumulative since FY 2005. Thus, for example FY 2006 data includes all Veterans who served in the era, were alive at some time during FY 2006 and participated in the program at any time during FY 2005 and FY 2006.

In 2022, there were around 14.53 million male veterans living in the United States. In that year, there were significantly more male veterans than female veterans living in the country.

This speadsheet contains data from the 2014 American Community Survey and shows the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Veterans who live in rural and urban areas. The spreadsheet includes variables like: raw numbers, umemployment rate, disability rate, median personal income, age groups, period of service and other variables.

VA released Profile of Rural Veterans: 2014. located on the Reports page under the Population category. This profile uses data from the 2014 American Community Survey data to compare the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Veterans who live in rural and urban areas. The profile also compares Rural Veterans with Rural non-Veterans

Graph and download economic data for Estimated Mean Real Household Wages Adjusted by Cost of Living for Suffolk city, VA (MWACL51800) from 2009 to 2023 about Suffolk City, VA; Virginia Beach; adjusted; average; VA; wages; real; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Estimated Mean Real Household Wages Adjusted by Cost of Living for Montgomery County, VA (MWACL51121) from 2009 to 2023 about Montgomery County, VA; Blacksburg; adjusted; average; VA; wages; real; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Estimated Mean Real Household Wages Adjusted by Cost of Living for Roanoke County, VA (MWACL51161) from 2009 to 2023 about Roanoke County, VA; Roanoke; adjusted; average; VA; wages; real; and USA.