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In 2000, there were 208.1 million civilians 18 years old and older. Almost 26.4 million of these people, or 12.7 percent, were veterans.
In 1980, 28.5 million veterans lived in the United States, but the number declined to 27.5 million in 1990 (14.5 percent of the adult civilian population) and to 26.4 million in 2000. Many veterans from the Korean War, World War II, and World War I aged and died during the last 20 years of the 20th Century.
Between 1990 and 2000, veterans declined as a percentage of the civilian population in all regions. Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Alaska had the highest percentage of veterans, 17.1 percent. New York (9.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (9.8 percent) had the lowest percentages of veterans in their populations. Rural and nonmetropolitan counties had the highest concentration of veterans. Hampton, Virginia, near the country's largest naval station, had the greatest concentration of veterans in 2000, 27.1 percent. Six of the 10 places with the highest concentration of veterans were in Virginia.
In 2000, the largest veteran populations lived in the South (9.9 million) and the Midwest (6.1 million). The West had veteran populations of 5.7 million and the Northeast had 4.6 million. The South also had the highest proportion of veterans of the adult population, at 13.4 percent.
The number of female veterans has been increasing. Although the 1.6 million women veterans made up only 6 percent of the total veteran population in 2000, the percentages of women veterans from recent time periods is higher. Nearly 10 percent of veterans who served from May 1975 to August 1980 and 13 percent of those who served from September 1980 to July 1990 were women. In the most recent period of service, August 1990 or later, more than 15 percent were women.
Poverty rates were low among veterans for every period of service. Overall, 5.6 percent of veterans lived in poverty in 1999, compared with 10.9 percent of the U.S. adult population in general. The youngest veterans, those who served in August 1990 or later, were among the most likely to be poor, with a poverty rate of 6.2 percent.
Vietnam era veterans accounted for the largest veteran population in 2000. Nearly one-third of all veterans, 8.4 million, were from the Viet Nam era.World War II veterans made up the next largest group, with 5.7 million people.
The racial makeup of veterans is starting to more closely resemble the population as a whole. The percentage of adult civilians who are White and not Hispanic was about 72 percent in 2000, while the White non-Hispanic proportion of veterans was more than 10 points higher, at almost 83 percent. However, among veterans 18 to 64 years old, White non-Hispanics made up 79 percent. The second largest veteran population, composed of Black or African Americans, made up 12 percent of the veterans aged 18 to 64, but less than 6 percent of veterans aged 65 and over. Black or African Americans represented 9.7 percent of the veteran population. Slightly more than 11.0 percent of the general population was Black or African American. Other racial groups show similar trends.
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