In honor of Veterans Day 2015, the financial website WalletHub released a list of the top 100 cities for armed service members to call home, and 20 of them are in California.
As part of its methodology, WalletHub examined the 100 most populated cities in America in terms of both Economic Wellness and Environment, Education & Health. Together, the categories included factors such as the veteran unemployment and homeless rates; percentage of military skill-related jobs; the percentage of veterans living below the poverty line; the number of veterans per 1,000 residents; emotional health among vets; and the prevalence of VA Benefit Administration facilities.
Irvine, California took the #1 spot with an overall score of 74.84 out of 100. Rounding out the top 5 were the cities of Scottsdale, AZ; Raleigh, NC; Orlando, FL; and Gilbert, AZ. Six other cities in the Golden State also made the top 50: San Diego (6); Bakersfield (11); Chula Vista (12); Fremont (29); Anaheim (38); and Santa Ana (50).
As WalletHub notes, too many of our American veterans are lacking necessities like affordable housing and access to quality education and health care. “Of the 21.1 million military veterans residing in the U.S. as of October 2015, about 422,000 are unemployed, many because of disabilities that resulted from active duty,” the researchers note.
Even more disturbing, an internal report in September revealed that over 300,000 veterans died while awaiting care from the U.S. Department of Veterans affairs. On Wednesday, presidential candidates from both political parties vowed to improve the system and advance quality of life for America’s defenders of freedom.
Read more about the best cities for veterans and see a full list here.
Image Credit: Flickr User nycmarines, https://flic.kr/p/aEe8hL via (CC BY 2.0)