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South, Rural America have highest percent of
Disabled Veterans
Newswise — Veterans with service-related
disabilities are concentrated in the
American South and in rural places, a new
report from the Carsey Institute at the
University of New Hampshire finds. Issued to
commemorate Veteran’s Day (Nov. 11), the
report analyzes new data from the U.S.
Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community
Survey, which released service-related
disability data for the first time.
“The concentration of disabled veterans in the South and
rural America is largely because veterans
represent a higher percentage of the total
population in these places, although there
also are some differences in the rate of
disability among veterans,” says report
author Beth Mattingly, who is director of
research on vulnerable families at the
Carsey Institute and a research assistant
professor of sociology at UNH.
“As we remember those who sacrificed this Veteran’s Day, we
should recognize that rural places and the
South may be especially in need of
facilities to aid disabled veterans.”
Mattingly, who co-authored the report with Carsey research
assistant Michelle Stransky, also notes that
the high proportion of disabled veterans in
rural America presents the compound
challenge of transportation over long
distances as an obstacle to obtaining
services.
Among the key findings of the report:
• Nearly 1.5 percent of U.S. adults, an
estimated 3.4 million, are veterans who have
sustained service-related disabilities.
• In the South, an estimated 1.75 percent of
adults are veterans with service-related
disabilities. This is significantly higher
than in any other region.
• Other regional differences are also
significant. The concentration of disabled
veterans is lowest in the Northeast,
followed by the Midwest and West.
• In the Northeast, Midwest, and West, rural
places have the highest proportion of
disabled veterans, followed by the suburbs
and then central cities. In the South, there
are no significant differences by place.
• Rural rates are highest in the West, where
an estimated two out of every 100 adults is
a veteran with a service-related disability.
The report, “Rural America and the South Have the Highest
Concentration of Veterans with Service
Related Disabilities” is available to
download at
http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/FS-Mattingly-Military-Disabilities-2009.pdf.
The Carsey Institute conducts policy and applied research
on vulnerable families and on sustainable
community development, giving policy makers
and practitioners the timely, independent
resources they need to effect change in
their communities. Learn more at http://carseyinstitute.unh.edu/.
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a
world-class public research university with
the feel of a New England liberal arts
college. A land, sea, and space-grant
university, UNH is the state’s flagship
public institution, enrolling 12,200
undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.
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