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Description

  • Overview of Veteran Variables

Information on veterans has been collected sporadically by the U.S. Census Bureau. In the census of 1840, a special volume was issued that gave the names, ages, and places of residence of pensioners of the Revolutionary War or other U.S. military service, but other veterans were not identified. An inquiry on veterans was undertaken in the census of 1890, and summary statistics on surviving veterans of the Union and Confederate Armies were published. A question on veteran status was also included in the census of 1910, but it referred only to veterans of the Civil War and was evidently omitted by many enumerators. The 1930, 1940, and 1950 censuses included more detailed veteran questions. The 1940 census also identified the spouses and children (under age 18) of veterans, as well as the mortality status of the veteran husbands/fathers.

Data on veteran status in the 1940 and 1950 censuses were not satisfactory. Age and type-of-service entries were sometimes inconsistent, and non-reporting was relatively high. Furthermore, the totals did not correspond well with figures compiled by the Veterans Administration. The location of the question on the schedule may have been responsible for some of the errors. Because of these problems, the results of these original inquiries were not published.

The wording of the question on veteran status for the 1990-2000 censuses, the ACS, and the PRCS was expanded from the veteran/not veteran question in 1980, to include questions on current active duty status and service or training in the military Reserves and the National Guard. The expansion was intended to clarify the appropriate response for persons in the armed forces and for persons who had served in the National Guard or military Reserve units only. VETSTAT includes both general and detailed versions to capture this detail, but the measurement of veteran status makes it impossible to obtain fully harmonized categories; see the comparability discussion below.

Women were first included in veteran service questions in the 1980 census. In 1940, veteran status was extended to service in peacetime, as well as during wars and expeditions. Periods of service identified on the form changed over time, with 1980 on distinguishing between various time periods after the Korean War. The 1990 census added a question on total years of military service (see VETYRS). The 2000 census, the ACS, and the PRCS included a question on length of active-duty military service, which distinguished between those with less than two years versus two or more years of service.

  • Definition of Veteran

Prior to 1990, a "veteran" is defined as a civilian of a certain age (which varied by year) who had formerly served in the armed forces of the United States. Beginning in 1980, women were included in the definition. In the 1990-2000 censuses, the ACS, and the PRCS persons currently in the armed forces were defined as veterans.

From 1940 on, "service" is defined as active duty in the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard for any length of time and at any place at home or abroad. For 1970 on, participation in the National Guard or military Reserves counts as "service" only for those called to active duty (e.g., during World War II, the Korean War, or the Persian Gulf War); training or attendance at weekly meetings is not "service." The 1990 census defined work as a Merchant Marine Seaman during World War II as active duty.

Census forms differed in what they specifically excluded from the definition of military service. The following activities were never counted as military service: (1) civilian employment or volunteer activities for the Red Cross, USO, Public Health Service, or the War, Navy, and Defense Departments; 2) Merchant Marine employment outside of World War II; 3) service in the armed forces of another country.

VETSTAT indicates whether individuals served in the military forces of the United States (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard) in time of war or peace. "Service" included active duty in these branches of the military for any length of time and at any place at home or abroad.

Since the census, ACS, and PRCS data on veterans are based on self-reported responses, they differ from data from other sources, such as administrative records of the Department of Defense. Data in the IPUMS on veterans may also differ from Veterans Administration data on the benefits-eligible population, since factors determining eligibility for veterans' benefits differ from the rules for classifying veterans in the census, the ACS, and the PRCS.

Results based on the IPUMS data likewise differ from published reports by the Census Bureau. In the Bureau's printed tabulations, persons serving in at least one wartime period are classified by their most recent wartime service. In contrast, the dichotomous veteran variables in the IPUMS preserve information about all reported periods of service for each veteran. In the IPUMS, the responses were edited to eliminate inconsistencies between reported period(s) of service and the age of the person, and to cancel out reported combinations of periods containing unreasonable gaps (for example, a person could not serve during World War I and the Korean conflict without serving during World War II).