The Changing Face of Women Veterans
All Women Veterans
- The current projected percentage of U.S. Veterans who are women is 10 percent. For the most recent projections, visit VetPOP 2011. 1
- In FY 2009, the average age of women Veterans was 48 years, compared to 63 years for their male counterparts.
- In FY 2009 and FY 2010 PTSD, hypertension, and depression were the top three diagnostic categories for women Veterans treated by VHA.2
- About 1 in 5 women seen in VHA respond "yes" when screened for Military Sexual Trauma (MST).3
- Though rates of MST are higher among women, because of the disproportionate ratio of men to women in the military there are actually only slightly fewer men seen in VA that have experienced MST than there are women.4
Women Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND)
- Women make up nearly 11.6 percent of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans.
- 57.4 percent of women OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have received VA health care; of these, 89.8 percent have used VA health care more than once.5
- Nearly 51.3 percent of female OEF/OIF/OND Veterans who used VA care during FY 2002-2011 were born in or after 1970 (aged 43 or younger) compared to nearly 48 percent of male OEF/OIF/OND Veterans.6
1VetPOP 2011, Office of Policy and Planning
2VSSC Women Veterans Health Workload Report. October 2010.
3National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet: Military Sexual Trauma (197 KB, PDF)
4National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet: Military Sexual Trauma (197 KB, PDF)
5VA Healthcare Utilization among OEF/OIF/OND Veterans
4th Quarter FY12, V1a, Table 3.
6VA Healthcare Utilization among OEF/OIF/OND Veterans
4th Quarter FY12, V1a, Table 4.