Veterans

The number of living veterans in the Pittsburgh region has been declining on average by more than 7,000 a year over the last decade.  A rate that is now up to roughly 3% of the total veteran population annually. By the end of the decade the total number of living veterans in the region will be barely more than half what it was in 2000.  It means that close to 20 veterans a day are passing away across the region.

Here is what I add up for the number of living veterans from the statistics at the Department of Veterans Affairs for the 7 counties of the Pittsburgh MSA.

2000	275,369
2001	267,711
2002	260,014
2003	252,432
2004	245,014
2005	237,782
2006	231,763
2007	224,934
2008	218,135
2009	211,479
2010	204,647
2011	197,811

and some colleagues of mine have recently studied more extensively the impacts of veterans returning to the Pittsburgh region.