Military and Society - Statistics

Poverty

• Approximately one-third of the adult homeless population is veterans. (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans)
  
  
• Some 1.5 million other veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.  (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans)
  

Marriage

• During the past decade, the divorce rate among active-duty service members has grown to 3.6 percent. (The Lasky Law Firm Blog, July 12, 2010)
  
  
• The Defense Manpower Data Center credits rising military divorce rates to frequent and repeated deployments.
• In 2009, approximately 27,312 divorces took place between married members of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps where at least one member of the couple was on active duty. (The Lasky Law Firm Blog, July 12, 2010)
• Women soldiers in the United States military are more than twice as likely to become divorced as their male counterparts, according to figures released by the Department of Defense.
  

Children

• Approximately one-third of military children are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, higher than the national average. (Rand Report 2009)
  
  
• "The study among military families shows that reports of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and child neglect peaked during the main deployment of troops to Iraq.  When deployments began, reports of abuse quickly jumped from 5 in 1,000 children to 10 in 1,000." (USA Today, May 8, 2007)
  
  
• Children of military personnel are 2.5 times more likely to develop psychological problems than American children in general. (Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, August 2009)

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