In honor of Veterans Day, let’s take a moment to recognize the men and women who have served our country.

According to the latest American Community Survey (ACS) data[1], Metro Atlanta[2] is home to just over 298,000 civilian veterans. Figure 1 compares the veteran population for Metro Atlanta with those of Georgia and the nation as a whole.

Figure 1: Civilian Veterans as a Percentage of the Civilian Population Ages 18+

As the above chart (Figure 1)  shows, the Atlanta MSA (at 6.2% of the civilian population age 18 and over) has a slightly higher percentage of civilian veterans than does the nation as a whole (6.1%)– yet a slightly lower share than the state of Georgia as a whole, where 7.2% of the civilian adult population are veterans.

Unfortunately, some service members suffer injuries and become disabled as a result of their military service. Figure 2 below compares the Metro Atlanta’s percentage of civilian veterans with disability ratings to those of the state and nation as a whole.

Figure 2: Service-Related Disability Ratings

The above Figure 2 demonstrates that both Metro Atlanta (31.2% of veterans with a non-zero disability rating) and the state of Georgia (35.0%) have higher percentages of veterans with service-related disabilities than does the nation as a whole (28.9%). And they are also more likely to have disability ratings of 50% or higher (20.1% for the Atlanta MSA and 23.8% for Georgia) than the nation as a whole (18.1%).

Combining findings from the two graphs, the following story emerges: compared with the nation as a whole, Georgia has a higher percentage of veterans among its population; those veterans are more likely to have a service-related disability; and that those disabilities are more likely to be more severe.

How are we serving those who became disabled in the line of duty? Examining geographic access to Veterans Administration (VA) medical facilities provides some leverage on this question. For the supply side, we obtained a list of VA Medical centers and community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs).[3]  On the demand side, we have from the ACS the number of veterans with a disability rating of higher than 0%, which we examine at the Census tract level.[4]

Figure 3 below presents a dot density map of disabled civilian veterans for the 11-county ARC region, where one dot represents five people. These data are overlaid on the locations of the VA medical centers CBOCs, with drive times estimated using Caliper’s Maptitude mapping software.

Figure 3: Access to VA Facilities for Disabled Veterans

As Figure 3 shows above, most of the ARC region is within a 30-minute drive of at least one of the VA’s medical providers. The main exceptions are on the north side (the northern tip of Fulton County, parts of Cherokee County, and most of Forsyth County), central Douglas County, and northern Rockdale County. The areas with lower access in Douglas (west) and Rockdale (east) are more densely populated with disabled veterans than are the lower access areas in the north of our region.

 

Notes

[1] We’re using the 2023 1-year estimates, specifically table B21100.

[2] Defined here as the 29-county MSA. We are unable to calculate figures for the 11-County ARC Region using the 1-year estimates, as the data for table B21100 are suppressed in Rockdale County due to an insufficient sample.

[3] Medical centers are larger and provide the full range of traditional hospital services, while the smaller CBOCs provide only outpatient services. The VA also has Vet Centers (not included on this map) that provide counseling and referral services. For more information, see https://www.va.gov/health-care/about-va-health-benefits/where-you-go-for-care/

[4] For these small-area data, we continue to use table B21100 but switch to 5-year ACS estimates; the most recent release of these is the 2018-2022 vintage.