Who Serves In The U.s. Military?

CDA Center for Data Analysis Who Serves in the U.S. Military? Demographic Characteristics of Enlisted Troops and Officers Shanea J. Watkins, Ph.D., and James Sherk CDA08-05 August 21, 2008 Enlisted Recruits Are More Likely to Come from Middle- and Upper-Class Neighborhoods Percentage of Total Recruits 24.3 24.4 25% 20 Overrepresented Underrepresented 25.0 24.9 21.7 21.7 18.3 18.3 15 10 10.6 10.7 5 0 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 Poorest Quintile Next Poorest Quintile Middle Quintile ($42,040–$51,127) Next Richest Quintile ($65,032–$246,333) ($0–$33,267) ($33,268–$42,039) ($51,128–$65,031) Enlistees’ Neighborhood Income Levels Richest Quintile A Report of The Heritage Center for Data Analysis WHO SERVES IN THE U.S. MILITARY? THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF ENLISTED TROOPS AND OFFICERS SHANEA J. WATKINS, PH.D., AND JAMES SHERK CDA08-05 August 21, 2008 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE • Washington, DC 20002 • (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org NOTE: Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. CDA04—01 CDA08-05 NovemberAugust 9, 200419, 2008 WHO SERVES IN THE U.S. MILITARY? THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF ENLISTED TROOPS AND OFFICERS SHANEA J. WATKINS, PH.D., AND JAMES SHERK which Americans volunteer for military service and why. Based on an understanding of the limitations of any objective definition of quality, this report compares military volunteers to the civilian population on four demographic characteristics: household income, education level, racial and ethnic background, and regional origin. This report finds that: • U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps. • Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from highincome neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest onefifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods—a number Who serves in the active-duty ranks of the U.S. all-volunteer military? Conventional wisdom holds that military service disproportionately attracts minorities and men and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many believe that troops enlist because they have few options, not because they want to serve their country. Others believe that the war in Iraq has forced the military to lower its recruiting standards. Previous Heritage Foundation studies that examined the backgrounds of enlisted personnel refute this interpretation.1 This report expands on those studies by using an improved methodology to study the demographic characteristics of newly commissioned officers and personnel who enlisted in 2006 and 2007. Any discussion of troop quality must take place in context. A soldier’s demographic characteristics are of little importance in the military, which values honor, leadersh