# Military Personal and the South **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140 "2004-11-11T03:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/1 "2004-11-11T03:24:53Z")
Do a disproportionate number of the people who join the military come from the South? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/2 "2004-11-11T04:09:26Z")
The Census Bureau comes to the rescue again! [According to them,](http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-ff04se.html) The state with the highest percentage of people 16-64 years old who are in the armed forces is… drumroll please… Hawaii. Yeah, surprised me too. Hawaii has 5%. Next are Alaska, Virginia, North Dakota and North Carolina. But that doesn’t say anything about the make-up of the armed forces as a whole. The state with the most people in the armed forces is California, with 149,000. Next comes Virginia (131,000) and Texas (107,000). I’ll try to find some more detailed data. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/3 "2004-11-11T04:14:14Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > The state with the most people in the armed forces is California, with 149,000. Next comes Virginia (131,000) and Texas (107,000). > > I’ll try to find some more detailed data. That is good info but California is the most populous state with Texas second. Absolute numbers don’t count for much there. It is interesting that Virginia comes in second in overall numbers because it is not near the top in terms of population. ---
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/4 "2004-11-11T04:18:03Z")
Thanks for the information, but I am unclear as to what the Census numbers show. Is it showing where people lived before they joined the military or where they live when they are in the military? If the second, it would explain why Virginia is so high, but it wouldn’t answer my OP. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/5 "2004-11-11T04:19:18Z")
[Here](http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ThematicMapFramesetServlet?_bm=y&-tree_id=403&-_MapEvent=zoom&-errMsg=&-_dBy=040&-redoLog=false&-_zoomLevel=10&-tm_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_M00262&-tm_config=%7Cb=50%7Cl=en%7Ct=403%7Czf=0.0%7Cms=thm_def%7Cdw=9.565594259594235%7Cdh=5.2659338460479015%7Cdt=gov.census.aff.domain.map.EnglishMapExtent%7Cif=gif%7Ccx=-75.8093075%7Ccy=42.7544975%7Czl=8%7Cpz=8%7Cbo=%7Cbl=%7Cft=350:349:335:389:388:332:331%7Cfl=381:403:204:380:369:379:368%7Cg=01000US%7Cds=DEC_2000_SF3_U%7Csb=50%7Ctud=false%7Cdb=040%7Cmn=5.4%7Cmx=16.4%7Ccc=1%7Ccm=1%7Ccn=5%7Ccb=%7Cum=Percent%7Cpr=1%7Cth=DEC_2000_SF3_U_M00262&-PANEL_ID=tm_result&-_pageY=&-_lang=en&-geo_id=D&-_pageX=&-_mapY=&-_mapX=&-_latitude=&-_pan=&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_longitude=&-_changeMap=ZoomIn) is a map which shows the percentage of people who are _veterans_ by state. Not exactly what you were looking for, but this map shows: The highest percentage of veterans (15.8% - 16.4%) live in Maine, Alaska, Nevada, Montans and Wyoming. The smallest percentage of veterans (5.4%) live in New York, Texas, Illinois, Utah and California (despite California sending the most people to the armed forces; really gives you an idea of how massive CA’s population is.) I think the Census may not keep tabs on the exact breakdown of people _currently in_ the armed forces. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/6 "2004-11-11T04:25:54Z")
There is a wide perception of the South being the home to many old military families, where every male for generations has fought in some war or another, or at least served in some branch of the military. This may be true or untrue in modern times, but the perception goes back a long way. The US South is seen, sometimes, as roughly equivalent to Scotland: Agrarian, militaristic, honor-bound, and rebellious. Not to mention prone to fight and die for lost causes. (That, and they both talk funny. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/7 "2004-11-11T05:07:01Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > [Here](http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ThematicMapFramesetServlet?_bm=y&-tree_id=403&-_MapEvent=zoom&-errMsg=&-_dBy=040&-redoLog=false&-_zoomLevel=10&-tm_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_M00262&-tm_config=%7Cb=50%7Cl=en%7Ct=403%7Czf=0.0%7Cms=thm_def%7Cdw=9.565594259594235%7Cdh=5.2659338460479015%7Cdt=gov.census.aff.domain.map.EnglishMapExtent%7Cif=gif%7Ccx=-75.8093075%7Ccy=42.7544975%7Czl=8%7Cpz=8%7Cbo=%7Cbl=%7Cft=350:349:335:389:388:332:331%7Cfl=381:403:204:380:369:379:368%7Cg=01000US%7Cds=DEC_2000_SF3_U%7Csb=50%7Ctud=false%7Cdb=040%7Cmn=5.4%7Cmx=16.4%7Ccc=1%7Ccm=1%7Ccn=5%7Ccb=%7Cum=Percent%7Cpr=1%7Cth=DEC_2000_SF3_U_M00262&-PANEL_ID=tm_result&-_pageY=&-_lang=en&-geo_id=D&-_pageX=&-_mapY=&-_mapX=&-_latitude=&-_pan=&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_longitude=&-_changeMap=ZoomIn) is a map which shows the percentage of people who are _veterans_ by state. Not exactly what you were looking for, but this map shows: > > The highest percentage of veterans (15.8% - 16.4%) live in Maine, Alaska, Nevada, Montans and Wyoming. The smallest percentage of veterans (5.4%) live in New York, Texas, Illinois, Utah and California (despite California sending the most people to the armed forces; really gives you an idea of how massive CA’s population is.) > > I think the Census may not keep tabs on the exact breakdown of people _currently in_ the armed forces. I don’t know that this is necessarily a good guide to what states servicemen enlist out of, though. It seems to me that a lot of these veterans are likely to be retirees who have relocated, which could explain why Florida is the only large state with a high (13.9 - 15.3) percentage of veterans. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/8 "2004-11-11T15:18:29Z")
Just a perception with no figures to back me up but if there is a bigger percentage from the south it is not noticable. After 16 years in the Army(a lot of that in the Guard but with exposure to active duty) it seems pretty evenly spread out. A lot of career military start sounding like they are from the south because they wind up living there for twenty years. Any offical numbers you find may be off because a lot of soldiers try to get their home of record changed to Texas or Florida due to state income taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/9 "2004-11-12T19:41:32Z")
Bump. ---
**Author:** ![ScoobyTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@ScoobyTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScoobyTX)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/10 "2004-11-12T21:37:19Z")
I’m pretty sure that the census reflects the current residence of the miltary personnel. It makes perfect sense that Hawaii would have the highest per capita rate of membership of residents in the military, since it is a low pop. state with a lot of Navy personnel based there. North Dakota has a lot of Air Force personnel and a low population, so it would be pretty high on the per capita list. Virginia would be up there in absolute numbers for the same reason- many Pentagon staffers live there, plus people based at Norfolk and Quantico (plus any other Army & Air Force bases in the state). Texas has many Army and Air Force bases (plus some Navy installations), and California has a lot of Navy and Marine Corps bases (plus some Air Force bases). The census wouldn’t be the ones to keep track of where the personnel enlisted from, the DoD would. I don’t know if they publish that info. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-personal-and-the-south/274140/11 "2004-11-12T23:19:26Z")
It would kind of surprise me if they didn’t. My brother is career USAF enlisted. He’s a musician, and does a lot of public concerts. The concert programs often have personnel’s hometowns listed next to their names. I asked him about that once, and we concluded it’s an attempt to remind the public that the military comes from all over the country, not inside the Beltway. > [@ScoobyTX](#): > > I’m pretty sure that the census reflects the current residence of the miltary personnel. It makes perfect sense that Hawaii would have the highest per capita rate of membership of residents in the military, since it is a low pop. state with a lot of Navy personnel based there. North Dakota has a lot of Air Force personnel and a low population, so it would be pretty high on the per capita list. > > Virginia would be up there in absolute numbers for the same reason- many Pentagon staffers live there, plus people based at Norfolk and Quantico (plus any other Army & Air Force bases in the state). Texas has many Army and Air Force bases (plus some Navy installations), and California has a lot of Navy and Marine Corps bases (plus some Air Force bases). > > The census wouldn’t be the ones to keep track of where the personnel enlisted from, the DoD would. **I don’t know if they publish that info.**