Community Corner

Map: Do Veterans Live in High-Earning Areas?

The map below shows a snapshot of the median household income and the percentage of veterans across town.

Newscruncher is a daily series that breaks down the characteristics of your town by the numbers. You can see more posts by clicking the Newscruncher link above the headline or by checking out our weekend roundups. If you see any technical issues with this map, or if you'd like to suggest ideas for future Newscruncher articles, please email data@patch.com.

With Veterans Day approaching, Patch is looking at the lives of veterans across town. The map above shows a snapshot of the median household income and the percentage of veterans living there.

Nationally, veterans appeared to be faring better than most civilians during the recovery - at least in earnings. The median income for male veterans was at $35,725 and at $30,540 for female veterans. Compare that to civilian males and females which were $30,822 and $20,634 respectively.

However, new veterans often have a hard time finding jobs, in part because business owners are worried that their skills in service won’t translate to the civilian workplace. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans in Sept. rose to 10.1 percent and was higher than the nationwide unemployment rate which was at 7.2 percent.

The data in this map are from the United States Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey. These values are an estimate for 2011 taking into account 60 months of collected data. You can learn more about the survey here.

Using your cursor, you can hover over any census tract – the geographic region defined by the U.S. Census – and see in the box in the upper right hand corner of the map the median household income and the percentage of veterans in that area. Toggle between Civilian Veterans and Household Income to change the variables of the map.

What do you think explains the differences in where veterans live compared to the household income across town? Tell us in a comment or a blog post.


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