New Research Says Louisiana Isn’t A Great State For Military Vets

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Its well known that United States Military veterans often have a hard time adjusting to civilian life. Whether they faced active combat or non-combat duties, civilian life brings many challenges.

Starting civilian life can be easier depending on where you do it. Some states make it easier on veterans when its time to settle down. Though many veterans generally either transition into civilian life in the last place they were stationed, or head back home. But those might not be the best choices.

There are some states who perform much better than others when it comes to accommodating US vets. WalletHub recently analyzed research across 29 key metrics on how each state treats the burden on US vets.

It wasn't just WalletHub staff who did this work either. The experts they relied on include Jeremiah D. Gunderson SSG USA (Ret.), M.A. – Director of Veteran and Military Affiliated Services – The University of Texas at Austin, Patricia A. Patrician Ph.D., RN, FAAN – Professor & Rachel Z. Booth Endowed Chair; Colonel, US Army (Retired); School of Nursing – The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Craig R. Smith
Director of Military and Veteran Enrollment and Outreach – Thomas Edison State University. This isn't the whole list of experts, but just a sample.

Here's what those experts looked at:

"In order to determine the best and worst states for military retirement, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Economic Environment, 2) Quality of Life and 3) Health Care.

We evaluated those dimensions using 29 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for military retirees. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), we measured the “number of veterans” by the square root of the veteran population in order to avoid overcompensating for small differences among states, considering Veterans Administration (VA) facilities have not increased proportionally with the number of veterans."

So how did Louisiana land in the rankings? Not great. But also, not too bad.

Honestly, Louisiana was pretty much right in the middle. They landed at #27 on the list (which went up to 51 since they included DC), sandwiched between Delaware (26) and Missouri (28).

Nothing in the research was heavily destructive for Louisiana, but nothing was on top either. The state didn't place in the top of bottom 5 in any of the major categories they viewed. The state ranked #21 in Economic Environment , #25 in Quality of Life, and #37th in Health Care. The best the state did obviously was Quality of Life, and the worst was Health Care. You can see all the research here.