Monday, Apr. 21, 2025
Does Colorado have one of the highest densities of veterans in the US?
Despite hosting six military bases, Colorado sits in the middle of the pack when it comes to the share of its population who are veterans.
Around 332,000 veterans live in Colorado, or about 7.2% of its 4.6 million residents who are 18 or older, the 2023 American Community Survey shows. This puts Colorado 22nd in veteran share of the adult population.
The state with the highest veteran density is Alaska, with 56,000 veterans, or 10.5% of its adult population of 536,000. Texas has the largest veteran population, at almost 1.4 million — about 6.1% of its 23 million adult residents.
A veterans service office is available in every Colorado county. In 2024, 73% of the state voted to approve a property tax break for veterans unemployable due to disability.
In March, the federal Department of Veteran Affairs was preparing to lay off 83,000 employees. Some layoffs have already impacted probationary workers at Colorado offices.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Data compiled by The Colorado Sun from the 2023 American Community Survey States by veteran population
- Pikes Peak Library District Military and Veterans
- United States Space Force Buckley Space Force Base
- Colorado Department of Military and Veteran Affairs Colorado Division of Veteran Affairs
- The Colorado Sun Amendment G passes: Colorado voters expand property tax break to more disabled veterans
- 9News Colorado veterans fear fallout from Veterans Affairs layoffs that target thousands of workers
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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The Colorado Sun is a journalist-founded, award-winning and nonprofit news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself. In this way, we believe we can contribute to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado. We are committed to fact-based, in-depth and nonpartisan journalism. We cover everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education. Our goal is to produce the best possible journalism. We do that with the help of you, our readers, and community backers. We launched on Sept. 10, 2018.
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