State-Level Summaries of Veteran Needs and Well-Being

James P. Murphy, Terry L. Schell

ResearchPublished Feb 18, 2026

A substantial number of the programs designed to assist veterans are planned, funded, or implemented within states or similar geographic regions. At the same time, national programs operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or by national veteran-serving nonprofits may distribute their resources at the state or regional Veterans Integrated Service Networks level.

Challenges facing veterans can vary tremendously across states, but almost all published studies estimating the needs of veterans have looked exclusively at national samples of veterans and often only look at veterans who use VA services.

This report is designed to help fill this knowledge gap using several existing, population-representative data sources. The authors of this report present several measures of veteran service needs for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These state-specific profiles show how veterans’ needs vary substantially across states and how these differences should be considered when funding, designing, or implementing services and benefits designed to improve the lives of veterans.

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Murphy, James P. and Terry L. Schell, State-Level Summaries of Veteran Needs and Well-Being. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4405-3.html.
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Funding for this publication was made possible by a generous gift from Daniel J. Epstein through the Epstein Family Foundation. The research was conducted by the RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute within RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure.

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