Answers to this question provide specific information about veterans. Veteran status is used to identify people with active duty military service and service in the military Reserves and the National Guard. 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, not counting the 4-6 months for initial training or yearly summer camps. All other civilians are classified as nonveterans. These data are used primarily by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to measure the needs of veterans.

While it is possible for 17 year olds to be veterans of the Armed Forces, ACS data products are restricted to the population 18 years and older.

Veteran Status is:

Used at state and county levels to plan programs for medical and nursing home care for veterans.

Used by VA to plan the locations and sizes of veterans' cemeteries.

Used by local agencies, under the Older Americans Act, to develop health care and other services for elderly veterans.

Used to allocate funds to states and local areas for employment and job training programs for veterans under the Job Training Partnership Act.

Question/Concept History

For the 1999-2002 American Community Survey, the question was changed to match the Census 2000 item. The response categories were modified by expanding the "No active duty service" answer category to distinguish persons whose only military service was for training in the Reserves or National Guard, from persons with no military experience whatsoever.

For the 2003-2012 ACS, the "Yes, on active duty in the past, but not now" category was split into two categories. Veterans were asked whether or not their service ended in the last 12 months.

Beginning in 2013, the veterans status question was revised in several ways based on recommendations from previous analysis of the question and a change in data needs for the veterans' series. First, VA no longer needed the 12-month distinction in veteran classifications, which resulted in collapsing the response option from five categories. Second, the revised question eliminated the lead-in "yes" and "no" for each response option. Finally, the response category for Reservists incorporated information from the instructions in the old version of the question, eliminating the need for the instruction to the question itself.

Limitation of the Data

There may be a tendency for the following kinds of persons to report erroneously that they served on active duty in the Armed Forces: (a) persons who served in the National Guard or Military Reserves but were never called to duty; (b) civilian employees or volunteers for the USO, Red Cross, or the Department of Defense (or its predecessors, the Department of War and the Department of the Navy); and (c) employees of the Merchant Marine or Public Health Service.

Beginning in 2006, the population in group quarters (GQ) was included in the ACS. Some types of GQ populations may have period of military service and veteran status distributions that are different from the household population. The inclusion of the GQ population could therefore have a noticeable impact on the period of service and veteran status distributions. This is particularly true for areas with a substantial GQ population.

Comparability

The ACS has two separate questions for veteran status and period of military service, whereas in Census 2000, it was a two-part question. The wording for the veteran status question has remained the same; however, the response categories have changed over time (see the section "Question/Concept History"). While the response categories differ slightly from those in Census 2000, data from the two questions can still be compared to one another.

For comparisons to Census 2000 and earlier ACS data, go to https://data.census.gov. and enter "Comparing ACS Data" in the search box.

The Group Quarters (GQ) population was included in the 2006 ACS and not included in prior years of ACS data, thus comparisons should be made only if the geographic area of interest does not include a substantial GQ population.

For comparisons to the Current Population Survey (CPS), please see "Comparison of ACS and ASEC Data on Veteran Status and Period of Military Service: 2007"on the ACS website. Go to https://data.census.gov. and enter the paper title in the search box.