Veterans and Benefit Program Expenditures

This database reports the veteran population, veterans per capita, expenditures on programs for veterans, and per capita expenditures for major programs, including compensation and pension, education and vocational rehabilitation, and medical expenditures.  It also contains medical expenditures per unique medical patient.  Category definitions include:

• Veteran population reflects official VA estimates for states and counties.
• Total expenditures include compensation and pensions; construction; education, vocational rehabilitation and employment; loan guarantees; general operating expenses; insurance and indemnities; and medical care.
• Compensation and pension reflect payments made to individuals and includes expenditures for veterans’ compensation for service-connected disability; compensation for service-connected deaths for veterans’ dependents; dependency and indemnity compensation for service-connected deaths; veterans’ pension for nonservice-connected disabilities; pension to veterans’ surviving spouse and children; and burial allowances for veterans
• Construction expenditures reflect projects based on data from the VA FMS Accrued Expenditure by VA Facility.
• Educational and vocational rehabilitation programs are combined into a single category and include automobiles and adaptive equipment for certain disabled veterans and members of the Armed Forces; specially adapted housing for disabled veterans; dependent’s educational assistance (Chapter 35); vocational rehabilitation for disabled veterans (Chapter 31); post-Vietnam era veterans’ educational assistance (Chapter 32); Montgomery G.I. Bill for Selected Reserves (Chapter 1606); and Montgomery GI Bill (Chapter 30).
• Loan guarantee expenditures provide assistance to eligible veterans, service members, and surviving spouses to purchase, build, or refinance a home.
• General Operating Expenses (GOE) represent the costs necessary to provide administration and oversight for the benefits provided by VA, including overhead and human resources but excludes payments made directly to beneficiaries.
• Insurance and indemnities reflect estimates provided by VA regional offices and include death claims, matured endowments, dividends, cash surrender payments, total disability income provision payments, and total and permanent disability benefits payments.
• Medical care expenditures include medical care; national program administration; general post fund; medical and prosthetic research; and miscellaneous accounts.
• The number of unique medical patients is based on the patient’s home residence and may include a small number of non-veteran patients.

Expenditures per capita reflect per veteran population by state or county.  Medical expenditures per unique medical patient reflect medical expenditures per reported unique medical patient.  Note that the categories Unique medical patients and Medical care expenditures per unique medical patient are not available starting in 2024. Expenditures are reported in fiscal years.