Last modified: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Veterans Day in Indiana by the numbers
Some statistics from the Indiana Business Research Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 9, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Just in time for Veterans Day on Thursday (Nov. 11), the Indiana Business Research Center in Indiana University's Kelley School of Business has offered some data about the holiday's observance in the Hoosier state.
How many serve?
- There were more than a half million, or 501,000, veterans living in Indiana in 2009.
- 10.4 percent of Indiana's adult population are veterans. Among Indiana counties, Owen has the highest concentration of veterans at 15.6 percent of the adult population followed by Miami (15.1 percent), Brown (15.1 percent), Martin (14.6 percent) and Newton (14.5 percent).
- 34 percent of Indiana veterans served during the Vietnam War era (1964-1975). Among all living Hoosier veterans, 21 percent served during the Gulf War period that is broadly defined as 1990 to the present, 12 percent served during the Korean War era and 11 percent during World War II.
After returning stateside
- There were 46,800 veteran-owned businesses in Indiana in 2007. Of these businesses, 9,400 had paid employees while the remaining 37,300 firms represent self-employed workers or partnerships with no paid employees. Additionally, another 24,200 Hoosier firms were partially owned by veterans in 2007.
- The number of jobs in Indiana generated by veteran-owned businesses totaled 136,500 in 2007. Another 48,300 Hoosier jobs are supported by firms that were partially owned by veterans.
- The value of sales for Indiana's veteran-owned businesses totaled $26.2 billion in 2007. Indiana businesses partially owned by veterans generated an additional $7.9 billion in sales.
- Construction is the most common industry for veterans in Indiana. There were 8,250 veteran-owned construction companies in Indiana in 2007. Professional and scientific services (6,090) and retail trade (4,730) also were common. Indiana's veteran-owned manufacturing firms led all industries in job creation with 31,300 workers in 2007.
Characteristics of the veteran population
- Just 5.3 percent of Indiana veterans are women.
- The median annual income of Indiana's veterans in 2009 was $32,249, compared to $24,301 for the general population.
- 17.6 percent of Indiana veterans have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 22.5 percent for the population as a whole.
- 27.2 percent of Indiana's veterans have some type of disability, compared to 15.5 percent for Indiana's total population age 18 or above. The higher rate of disability among veterans could be attributed to both military service and the fact that the share of Indiana veterans age 65 or older is more than twice as great as for the total population.
The Indiana Business Research Center is part of a national network of State Data Centers and acts as the official state representative to the Census Bureau on matters relating to the census and population estimates. The IBRC also develops and maintains STATS Indiana, the award winning, state-supported Web service (www.stats.indiana.edu).
