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| Returning from active duty. Now what? |
The first criterion we thought of was the metro areas with the most veterans. On that basis, the New York City area ranks #1, with the most veterans of any other metro area.
But as a percentage of the area population, New York and Los Angeles rank 10th and 9th out of 10. Washington, DC has the highest percentage of veterans, 9.6 percent, exactly double the percentages for New York and Los Angeles. The Atlanta area is not far behind, with 8.6 percent. (See Table 1.)
Table 1. Number of Veterans and Percent of Population, 10 Most Populous Metro Areas
| Rank | Metro Statistical Area (MSA) | Pop | Vets | Percent |
| 1 | New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA | 14,482 | 699.6 | 4.83 |
| 2 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA | 9,680 | 462.9 | 4.78 |
| 3 | Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI | 7,018 | 445.8 | 6.35 |
| 4 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 4,650 | 369.2 | 7.94 |
| 5 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 4,479 | 372.9 | 8.32 |
| 6 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL | 4,401 | 256.2 | 5.82 |
| 7 | Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX | 4,343 | 299.4 | 6.89 |
| 8 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 4,242 | 408.2 | 9.62 |
| 9 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA | 3,881 | 334.8 | 8.63 |
| 10 | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH | 3,478 | 251.6 | 7.24 |
| Total | 60,652 | 3,900.6 | 6.43 |
If we pick the MSAs based on total population and use 500,000 as the cutoff, the top ten MSAs for veteran concentration are led by the Virginia Beach MSA, with 17.1 percent, followed by the North Port, FL MSA. (See Table 2).
Table 2. Top 10 MSAs for Veterans that have a Population over 500,000
Metro
Area
|
Veterans
as percent of total population
|
Number
of veterans
|
|
1
|
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC
|
17.17%
|
211,933
|
2
|
North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
|
14.57%
|
86,437
|
3
|
Jacksonville, FL
|
13.61%
|
142,461
|
4
|
Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC
|
12.78%
|
67,762
|
5
|
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area
|
12.37%
|
202,069
|
6
|
Tucson, AZ Metro Area
|
12.23%
|
93,442
|
7
|
Honolulu, HI Metro Area
|
12.03%
|
87,715
|
8
|
Albuquerque, NM Metro Area
|
11.86%
|
81,002
|
9
|
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Metro Area
|
11.79%
|
61,530
|
10
|
Columbia, SC Metro Area
|
11.65%
|
68,614
|
Here are some comments on the first two tables:
1. Veterans like to stay near bases. This is often the best place to get a civilian job. It is also a way of staying in touch with friends and of taking advantage of free programs such as training, cultural activities and base shopping. Veterans’ organizations are likely to have chapters tied to bases, where they recruit new members.
2. Veterans like warm weather. Southern locations are favored.
3. The numbers don't include active duty personnel and dependents. In the Virginia Beach metro area, if active-duty personnel and dependents are included, the share of the population accounted for by military families could rise from one out of five to one out of three.
The concentrations of veterans become even more pronounced at the county level. Of the 589 counties that include more than 100,000 residents, 14 of the top 20 are concentrated in just four states – Florida, with seven counties represented, Texas with three, and Virginia and North Carolina both with two counties.
Veterans make up 18.5 percent of the population of Citrus County, FL, which is the home of several Air Force locations and sites. (See Table 3.)
Table 3. Top 20 counties with more than 100,000 residents*
County
|
Veterans
as %
of total
pop.
|
Number of
veterans
|
|
1
|
Citrus, FL
|
18.46%
|
25,730
|
2
|
Okaloosa, FL
|
16.78%
|
31,890
|
3
|
Cochise, AZ
|
16.74%
|
22,106
|
4
|
Stafford, VA
|
16.13%
|
21,674
|
5
|
Hampton Roads,
VA**
|
15.44%
|
191,261
|
6
|
Kitsap, WA
|
15.01%
|
38,269
|
7
|
Hardin, KY
|
14.55%
|
15,568
|
8
|
Clay, FL
|
14.38%
|
27,955
|
9
|
Bell, TX
|
14.33%
|
46,288
|
10
|
Comanche, OK
|
14.26%
|
18,019
|
11
|
Cumberland, NC
|
14.23%
|
46,114
|
12
|
Santa Rosa, FL
|
14.16%
|
22,440
|
13
|
Houston, GA
|
14.00%
|
20,466
|
14
|
Sumter, FL
|
13.85%
|
14,071
|
15
|
Montgomery, TN
|
13.73%
|
25,331
|
16
|
Marion, FL
|
13.67%
|
45,806
|
17
|
Guadalupe, TX
|
13.59%
|
19,005
|
18
|
Escambia, FL
|
13.51%
|
40,899
|
19
|
Onslow, NC
|
13.40%
|
24,560
|
20
|
Comal, TX
|
13.04%
|
14,920
|
*Rank is out of the 589 U.S. counties that include more
than 100,000 residents. Data are for 2012, projected from 2010 Census data,
while the population data for each county are from the 2012 America Community
Survey.
**The
adjacent independent cities of Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach
and Chesapeake (collectively known as Hampton Roads) are combined.
Finally, what do we get when we look through the other end of the telescope? Where are the smallest concentrations of veterans? Answer: In big cities.
Finally, what do we get when we look through the other end of the telescope? Where are the smallest concentrations of veterans? Answer: In big cities.
Table 4. Bottom
20 counties with over 100,000 residents*
County
|
Veterans
as percent
of total
population
|
Number of
veterans
|
|
1
|
Kings, NY (Brooklyn)
|
2.12%
|
54,414
|
2
|
Miami-Dade, FL
|
2.45%
|
63,517
|
3
|
New York, NY (Manhattan)
|
2.46%
|
39,760
|
4
|
Webb, TX
|
2.49%
|
6,450
|
5
|
Hudson, NJ
|
2.51%
|
16,364
|
6
|
Queens, NY
|
2.57%
|
58,351
|
7
|
Bronx, NY
|
2.58%
|
36,327
|
8
|
Hidalgo, TX
|
2.89%
|
23,332
|
9
|
San Francisco, CA
|
3.19%
|
26,336
|
10
|
Los Angeles, CA
|
3.21%
|
319,623
|
11
|
Suffolk, MA
|
3.25%
|
24,201
|
12
|
Santa Clara, CA
|
3.35%
|
61,596
|
13
|
Essex, NJ
|
3.48%
|
27,410
|
14
|
Rockland, NY
|
3.48%
|
11,073
|
15
|
Utah, UT
|
3.49%
|
18,888
|
16
|
Passaic, NJ
|
3.61%
|
18,170
|
17
|
Westchester, NY
|
3.75%
|
36,076
|
18
|
Union, NJ
|
3.75%
|
20,424
|
19
|
Bergen, NJ
|
3.86%
|
35,483
|
20
|
Alameda, CA
|
3.88%
|
60,309
|
*Rank is out of the 589 U.S. counties that include
more than 100,000 residents. See first note to Table 3.
