Report finds post-9/11 vets have far higher disability ratings than prior generations


According to an annual survey of veterans’ employment and status by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, post-9/11 active-duty veterans have significantly higher disability rates than those of prior generations.

According to an article published by MilitaryTimes.com, the Current Population Survey of 60,000 households in 2018, states that “41 percent of Gulf War-era II [post-9/11] veterans had a service-connected disability, compared with 25 percent of all veterans.”

The BLS report did not discuss the reasons behind why post-9/11 veterans have higher disability ratings than veterans of other eras. However, Dr. Nicholas Armstrong, a senior researcher at Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, suggested several reasons. These included a higher survival rate due to advances in medicine and evacuation treatment centers, increased awareness of the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and a better understanding of mental health issues resulting from post-traumatic stress. Armstrong continued by saying that advances in the ability to diagnose PTSD are “another of the many drivers, I would say, of the uptick in disability rates.”

Click here to learn more about the finding of the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

Relevant pages: Veterans Disability