Study on American Veteran Families

Key Chapter Title List

1. Project Overview and Research Background
2. Research Motivation
3. Data and Research Methodology
4. Family Structure, Age, and Marital Demographics
5. Diversity of Veteran Families
6. Economic Well-being of Veteran Families
7. Future Development Recommendations
8. In-depth Analysis of Data and Methods
9. Supplementary Tables (For Interested Readers)
10. References

Document Introduction

U.S. military families have long received extensive attention from the U.S. Department of Defense, policymakers, and the public due to their critical support role for service members, with related program support and academic research also largely focused on this group. However, after service members transition to veteran status, despite their continued social identity and policy relevance, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) lacks statutory authority to provide care or benefits to most veteran families, and existing research has a limited understanding of the overall situation of veteran families.

This report aims to fill this research gap by constructing a demographic and economic profile of U.S. veteran families, providing a key basis for understanding the socioeconomic resource environment of veterans and identifying potential need gaps compared to non-veteran families. The report not only examines differences between veteran families and the general civilian population but also compares them with active-duty military families, conducting an in-depth analysis of core dimensions such as household composition, marital status, child distribution, racial background, age structure, employment status, and income levels.

The research data is sourced from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey (ACS) five-year data extract, employing rigorous weighted statistical methods to ensure result representativeness. The report defines a veteran family as a household where the head or spouse (if present) is a veteran, clearly distinguishes the statistical boundaries between veteran families, active-duty military families, and non-veteran families, and addresses data processing challenges such as the identification of unmarried partners.

Key findings reveal that U.S. veteran families constitute approximately 11% of all households nationwide, are more likely to exist as married or partnered, and generally have an older household age compared to non-veteran families. The demographic diversity of veteran families continues to increase, with women comprising 17% and non-white individuals comprising 40% of veterans who served after 2001; nearly 10% of female veteran marriages are same-sex marriages, significantly higher than among male veterans. Economically, veteran families hold a clear income advantage, with a poverty rate of only 6.0% (compared to 12.5% for non-veteran families), and demonstrate greater resilience to employment shocks.

The report also notes that 53% of married veteran families were formed after the service member's transition to veteran status, a characteristic with important implications for benefit policy outreach. Based on the findings, the report proposes targeted policy recommendations, including benefit outreach campaigns targeting family members, enhancing research on dual-veteran families, and ensuring equitable access to benefits for diverse veteran populations, providing empirical support for related policy formulation and program design.