Military and Veterans

Americans are much more likely than Germans to see U.S. bases in Germany as important for their country’s national security.

World War II service members’ numbers have dwindled from around 939,000 veterans in 2015 to about 300,000 in 2020.

U.S. military veterans and their families have consistently had higher standards of living than non-veterans over the past 40 years.

For many veterans who served in combat, their experiences strengthened them personally but made the transition to civilian life difficult.

Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.

Today’s active duty military is smaller and more racially and ethnically diverse than in previous generations. More women are officers.

What it means to be a military veteran in the United States is being shaped by a new generation of service members. About one-in-five veterans today served on active duty after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Their collective experiences – from deployment to combat to the transition back to civilian life – are markedly different from those who served in previous eras.

About two-thirds of U.S. veterans say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, while 58% say the same of the war in Afghanistan.

A new Pew Research Center survey of veterans finds that a majority (57%) approve of the way Trump is handling his duties as commander in chief, with about half (48%) saying his administration’s policies have made the military stronger.

The U.S. is one of 23 countries where the military draft is authorized but not currently implemented. An additional 60 have some form of an active conscription program.