Number of U.S. Veterans Is Shrinking

Thursday marks Veterans Day in the United States, a holiday originally known as Armistice Day and declared by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Originally established to commemorate the end of World War I, it became Veterans Day in 1954.

Numbers from the Census Bureau show that despite the continued U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts, older veterans remained the norm in the U.S. As of 2019, more than half were over the age of 65.

In the same year, there were 17.4 million veterans in the U.S., down from 21.8 million in 2010. Only around 380,000 World War II veterans were still alive in 2019. The number of U.S. vets is expected to further decline as the largest group among them remain the older Vietnam vets.