VA disability compensation by the numbers, FY2015 to FY2025

FY2015 and FY2025

• Veterans receiving VA disability compensation

  FY20154,168,774FY20256,338,253

• Veterans with a combined rating of 100%

  Not counting veterans paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability.

  FY2015492,964FY20251,847,449

• Service-connected disabilities per veteran, on average

  FY20154.72FY20257.34

Tinnitus was the most prevalent service-connected disability in every year from FY2015 to FY2025.

The most prevalent service-connected disabilities

These are counts of disabilities, not of veterans, in the same unit as the report's total: 46,496,235 service-connected disabilities among veterans receiving compensation in FY2025, against 19,683,391 in FY2015.

How these numbers were compiled

• The counts are veterans on the rolls on September 30, the last day of each fiscal year. Each year comes from that year's own report, as published.
• Every figure was read twice, from two different pages of the same report: the counts by combined rating from the five-year table and from the table by sex (by gender in earlier reports), the ten most prevalent disabilities and the total number of disabilities from the Quick Reference and from a second table, and the counts by period of service from the Quick Reference and from the payments table. Every column was added up against the total the report prints. A script does the reading, and it stops on any disagreement it has not been told about. In three places VBA's own report disagrees with itself, including the second table for FY2019's and FY2021's counts by combined rating; they are listed below, with which reading this page uses and why.
• The most-prevalent counts are numbers of service-connected disabilities, in the unit of the report's own total number of disabilities. They are not numbers of veterans: VBA notes that a veteran may be receiving benefits based on one or more disabilities.
• Every report from FY2015 to FY2025 says it counts a veteran paid for individual unemployability at their combined rating, not as 100% disabled. So the 100% figures leave out veterans paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability.
• Disability names are printed as each year's report prints them, capital letters included. 'Scars, burns (2nd degree)', in the FY2024 and FY2025 lists, is a different category from 'Scars, general' in earlier lists, not a new name for it: the FY2025 report lists both.
• Later reports correct some earlier years “to remove Veterans that did not receive a benefit payment” (FY2024 report, PDF page 95, footnote 27). This page shows each year as its own report published it, so these years include veterans VBA later removed: FY2020, 5,081,692 veterans corrected to 5,081,654 and 28,970,943 disabilities to 28,970,598 (FY2024 report); FY2021, 5,225,420 veterans corrected to 5,225,386 and 31,102,270 disabilities to 31,101,878 (FY2024 report, FY2025 report); FY2022, 5,417,012 veterans corrected to 5,417,010 and 33,794,007 disabilities to 33,794,002 (FY2024 report, FY2025 report); FY2023, 5,662,273 veterans corrected to 5,662,247 and 37,296,902 disabilities to 37,296,675 (FY2024 report, FY2025 report).
• In FY2018 the payments-by-period table (PDF page 84) prints Peacetime Era as 780,786, and its rows add up to one veteran less than its 4,743,108 total; on the same page the new-recipients total carries the footnote 'Total includes 1 Veteran from World War I indicated in the award record.' The Quick Reference (PDF page 72) prints 'Peacetime Era (Other)' as 780,787, which adds up to the total. The series uses the Quick Reference, so its FY2018 'Peacetime Era (Other)' most likely includes that one World War I veteran.
• The FY2019 report's table by gender (PDF page 82, printed page 11 of 52) prints counts by combined degree that add up to 4,927,041, not to the 4,944,275 total it prints, and differ from the report's five-year table (PDF page 80) at nine of eleven degrees. The five-year table adds up to its total, and the later reports that reprint FY2019 agree with it, so the series uses it.
• The FY2021 report's table by gender (PDF page 77) prints counts by combined degree that add up to 5,199,996, not to the 5,225,420 total it prints, and differ from the report's five-year table (PDF page 75) at eight of eleven degrees. The five-year table adds up to its total, and the later reports that reprint FY2021 differ from it by at most seven veterans at any degree, so the series uses it.

Official sources

1. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2015
2. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2016
3. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2017
4. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2018
5. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2019
6. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2020
7. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2021
8. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2022
9. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2023
10. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2024
11. Veterans Benefits Administration, Annual Benefits Report, FY2025

All reports are on VBA's Annual Benefits Report page.

How these figures are checked: our methodology and the open dataset.