Virginia to California, States That Best Support Military Families
Military service members and their families sacrifice for the safety of the U.S. and face many challenges during and after their service, including repeated relocations, separation, accessing healthcare, mental health services, quality k-12 schools, unemployment, housing/homelessness, food insecurity, and higher risk of suicide.
Where military families live can determine which services and supports are available, impacting their quality of life. A 2023 report by the financial website WalletHub, found that states that voted Republican in the 2020 presidential election were more friendly toward military personnel and their families.
Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia ranked the best overall for veterans and their families. Oregon, Washington D.C., and Nevada ranked the worst. In addition, Alaska, Maine, Montana, Virginia, and Wyoming have the most veterans per capita. Districts of Columbia, California, Utah, New York, and New Jersey have the least per capita.
The rankings in the WalletHub report were based on three criteria, economic environment, quality of life, and healthcare, with each having an equal value of 33.33 percent.
While each military family’s experience and needs are different, the 2022 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey (MFLS) (pdf) revealed that children’s education is one of the top concerns for the majority of military families.
In 2020, more than 914,000 school-aged children had a military parent, according to Purdue University’s Military Family Research Institute’s 2022 report (pdf) on the state of military and veteran families in the United States. Further, the Department of Defense estimates that military-connected children will attend six to nine different schools during their first twelve years of schooling.
The MFLS survey also found that 48 percent of active-duty families were concerned about the military spouse’s employment, 45 percent said they were worried about the time away from family during deployment, 40 percent said military pay, 40 percent said Basic allowance for housing/Off-base housing funds, and 37 percent said relocation issues were of major concern.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2022 Employment Situation of Veterans report shows the unemployment rate for all veterans was 2.8 percent, lower than the rate for nonveterans (3.6 percent) in 2022 and better than the year before.
North Dakota ranked best for economic environment, which includes job opportunities for veterans, number of veteran-owned businesses, military bases per 100,000 veterans, total Veteran Affair (VA) expenditure per veteran, academic credit for service, state money in DOD contracts, help for returning veterans, private hiring preference, housing costs, cost of living, and amount of tax on military pension.
Carl Castro, Ph.D.–professor of social work and psychology and retired U.S. Army Col.–told WalletHub that there are very few states that exempt military pension from being taxed, and it would be great if more states would extend that benefit.
“This would be the ultimate demonstration of a grateful nation. There are, of course, budget implications for doing this,” said Castro.
Maryland ranked first for quality of life, which includes the number of veterans, number of veterans not on government assistance, VA benefits and facilities per veteran, quality universities, entertainment, number of homeless vets, and weather.
North Dakota has the best homeless rate, at 37 homeless out of a total of 55,000 veterans, while California had the worst homeless rate at 10,395 homeless out of a little over 1.5 million veterans.
Healthcare was another area of concern for military families.
Minnesota ranked first for healthcare, which includes the number of VA facilities per veteran, hospitals per capita, quality hospitals, doctors per capita, mental health counselors per capita, presence of veteran treatment courts, and suicide rate.
According to the 2022 VA National Suicide Data Report, veterans’ suicide numbers for 2020 were 6,146 Veteran deaths, which was 343 fewer than in 2019. Veteran suicides are still higher than civilians at 31.7 per 100,000 Veteran suicides vs. 16.1 per 100,000 for civilians.
Nearly 25 percent of respondents in the MFLS survey wanted more mental health services. Because most veterans live in rural areas, their access to mental health services is limited.
Of the 4.7 million veterans who live in rural communities, four-fifths of them are in areas that are considered medically underserved, and 93% of rural counties have no licensed psychologists, meaning that mental health care access is “extremely limited,” according to the Purdue Univ. report.
Alex Young, assistant professor of accounting at Hofstra University, told WalletHub that healthcare for military personnel could be improved in the short-term by having the government watchdog group, the Government Accountability Office, assess and make recommendations to the VA about their services.
“In the longer run, sustained VA leadership that is committed to accountability and oversight will help better serve veterans and their families,” said Young.
In a separate report, WalletHub assessed how patriotic each state is.
They found that the most patriotic states, with the highest number of people involved in military and civic activities and causes combined, were Virginia, Montana, and Alaska. The most unpatriotic states are Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, according to another recent WalletHub report.
Alaska, Hawaii, and Virginia were top for military engagement alone, which includes the number of military enlistees, active-duty military personnel, and the number of military reserves, while Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey had the lowest ranking for military engagement.
