Ukrainian veterans in the United States: Census data profile
by Dr. Oleh Wolowyna
The Ukrainian American community has a long tradition of service in the U.S. armed forces. The Ukrainian American Veterans organizations in many cities honor those who sacrificed their lives and their health for the freedom enjoyed in this country, and foster the tradition of service. The 2000 census provides information that allows us to document more precisely the military service of Ukrainian Americans both in war and in peacetime. It provides a precise picture of the size, geographical distribution and characteristics of Ukrainian American veterans, both active and non-active.
Census data provide information on three subgroups related to military service: a) persons who served in any of the branches of the armed forces, but who are not currently active (we will call them veterans); b) persons who are currently active in the military (we will call them active); c) persons who did not serve in the military but are currently training for Reserves or are in the National Guard. The numbers to be presented are for the following population: persons of Ukrainian ancestry and 18 years of age or older.
There are currently more than 90,000 Ukrainian American veterans in the United States; about three thousand are currently active and almost 15,000 are in training for the reserves or in the National Guard (Table 1). Consistent with the national trend, the participation of females in the armed forces has increased significantly in recent years. Among veterans, only 5 percent are females, while more than 10 percent of active military are females; among those currently training for reserves or in the National Guard, almost 40 percent are females.
Of the 90,000 veterans, 40,000 (45 percent) are 65 years or older, and 37,000 (40 percent) are between 45 and 64 years old. Among the currently active, close to 60 percent are 25-44 years old and 38 percent are 18 to 24 years old. Most of the National Guard members without military service are in the 45-64 year age group (45 percent), followed by the 25-44 year age group with 27 percent and the 65 years or older age group with 23 percent.
The largest contingent of veterans is Vietnam War veterans, with 27,544 (27.5 percent) of the total; they are followed closely by World War II veterans with 26,846 (27.0 percent) and the Korean War veterans number 12,586 (12.6 percent). The veterans of these three wars make up two thirds (67 percent) of all veterans.
It is interesting to compare these numbers with the total U.S. veteran group. The percentage for Ukrainian Korean War veterans is very similar to the total U.S. percentage. The percentage for Vietnam War veterans is somewhat higher for Ukrainians than for the total U.S. (27.5 percent and 25.9 percent, respectively). The difference for World War II veterans, on the other hand, is quite large: 26.8 percent for Ukrainian Americans and only 17.6 percent for the total U.S. group.
The drastic change in the language spoken at home situation among persons of Ukrainian ancestry in 2000, documented in this writer's previous article (The Ukrainian Weekly, October 12, 2003) is also reflected in all three military service subgroups. This is due to a significant involvement in military service of the "Fourth Wave" of immigrants from Ukraine. As expected, the proportion of persons speaking Ukrainian is quite small in all three subgroups, and the differences among the three subgroups are due to the age structure of each subgroup (Table 2).
The active service subgroup is the youngest one and has only 4 percent speaking Ukrainian. Among veterans almost 9 percent speak Ukrainian and the National Guard subgroup has the highest percentage with 11.4 percent. It should be noted that the average percent speaking Ukrainian for all three subgroups, nine percent, is lower than the respective percentage for the total Ukrainian American population, which is 12.7 percent.
As expected, for veterans the percent speaking Russian is significantly lower than the percent speaking Ukrainian (3.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively); most Russian speakers are recent immigrants. A surprising finding is that the percent speaking Russian is somewhat higher than the percent speaking Ukrainian among the active service subgroup: 5.2 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively. Also among the training in Reserve and the National Guard subgroup the percent of Russian speakers is quite high (10.7 percent), and close to the percent of Ukrainian speakers, 11.4 percent. The relatively high percentages of Russian speakers among these last two subgroups is due to a significant participation in the military forces by the Fourth Wave immigrants.
Almost 5,000 of the recent immigrants from Ukraine (1987-2000) belong to the three military-related subgroups. About 200 are in active service, three thousand are veterans and about 1,600 are in training or in the National Guard.
An important characteristic is the number of disabled veterans. The percent of disabled Ukrainian veterans is very similar to the percentage for the U.S. total: 28.3 percent and 29.1 percent, respectively. This means that of the 90,000 Ukrainian veterans, 25.6 thousand are disabled. The proportion of disabled increases, naturally, with age. For the 65 years and more age group the percent disabled is 39 percent (almost 16,000 out of 40,000). "Disabled" is defined by several types of disability: physical, mental, sensory, self-care, ability to go out and ability to work. The percentages presented above apply to persons with one or more of these disabilities. A critical disability is not being able to work for veterans under the age of 65 years. Out of 50,000 veterans in this age group, 6,000 (12 percent) are not able to work.
The distribution of veterans by Metropolitan Area presented in Table 3 allows our veterans' organizations to compare the total number or veterans of Ukrainian ancestry with the number of members registered in their organizations. The largest concentration of veterans is found in the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Area (MA), 13,700, with about 10 percent of them speaking Ukrainian. This is followed by Philadelphia with 6,000, Chicago with 3,700, Los Angeles with 3,500, Pittsburgh with 3,300, Detroit with 3,200, D.C.-Baltimore with 2,800, Cleveland with 2,600, etc.
Seattle with 1,000 veterans, has the highest percent with Ukrainian speakers (25 percent) - these are mostly immigrants of the Fourth Wave. The next highest percent of Ukrainian speakers, 17 percent, is found in Chicago, followed by Syracuse, N.Y., with 13 percent.
The percent of veterans among persons of Ukrainian ancestry is slightly lower compared to the total U.S. population: 11.2 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively. However, the proportion of veterans in the three major wars - World War II, Korea and Vietnam - is higher among Ukrainian veterans compared to all U.S. veterans, and in the case of World War II the percentage for Ukrainian veterans is significantly higher. Ukrainians also have a significant number of persons in active military duty and members of the National Guard.
An interesting finding is that the recent immigrants from Ukraine have made a significant contribution to the U.S. armed forces.
Cities with large Ukrainian communities have sizeable numbers of veterans, but many of them do not belong to Ukrainian veterans' organizations and only a small percent of them speak Ukrainian. The challenge is to find these veterans and to motivate them to join the Ukrainian American Veterans association.
Age Group |
% Females | |||||
| Military Service | Total |
18-24 |
25-44 |
45-64 |
65+ | |
| Yes, not active | 90,397 |
756 |
12,887 |
36,551 |
40,203 |
5.1 |
| Yes, active | 2,996 |
1,137 |
1,723 |
136 |
0 |
10.4 |
| No, training for reserves or in the National Guard |
14,904 |
774 |
3,995 |
6,771 |
3,364 |
38.9 |
| Total | 108,297 |
2,667 |
18,605 |
43,458 |
43,567 |
9.9 |
| Source: 2000 US census, 5% sample. | ||||||
Language Spoken at Home | ||||||
Other |
Ukrainian |
Russian | ||||
| Military Service | Total |
Numbers |
Percent |
Numbers |
Percent | |
| Yes, not active | 90,397 |
79,661 |
7,846 |
8.7 |
2890.0 |
3.2 |
| Yes, active | 2,996 |
2,712 |
127 |
4.2 |
157.0 |
5.2 |
| No, training for reserved or in the National Guard |
14,904 |
11,605 |
1,701 |
11.4 |
1598.0 |
10.7 |
| TOTAL | 108,297 |
93,978 |
9,674 |
8.9 |
4645.0 |
4.3 |
| * Persons of Ukrainian ancerstry 18 years or older. Source: 2000 US census, 5% sample. | ||||||
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Speak Ukrainian | ||
| Metropolitan Area | TOTAL | 18-24 | 25-44 | 45-64 | 65+ | Number | % of total |
| New York - New Jersey | 13669.0 | 36.0 | 1032.0 | 5091.0 | 7510.0 | 1404.0 | 10.3 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 5937.0 | 33.0 | 846.0 | 2473.0 | 2585.0 | 692.0 | 11.7 |
| Chicago, IL | 3657.0 | 0.0 | 488.0 | 1463.0 | 1706.0 | 623.0 | 17.0 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 3584.0 | 0.0 | 426.0 | 1275.0 | 1883.0 | 172.0 | 4.8 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 3296.0 | 0.0 | 202.0 | 1413.0 | 1681.0 | 149.0 | 4.5 |
| Detroit, MI | 3210.0 | 0.0 | 546.0 | 1109.0 | 1555.0 | 304.0 | 9.5 |
| DC-Baltimore | 2819.0 | 21.0 | 383.0 | 1195.0 | 1220.0 | 292.0 | 10.4 |
| Cleveland, OH | 2559.0 | 0.0 | 360.0 | 923.0 | 1276.0 | 180.0 | 7.0 |
| Scranton, PA | 1602.0 | 0.0 | 249.0 | 749.0 | 604.0 | 39.0 | 2.4 |
| S. Francisco-Oakland, CA | 1511.0 | 58.0 | 191.0 | 789.0 | 473.0 | 167.0 | 11.1 |
| W. Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL | 1450.0 | 0.0 | 92.0 | 265.0 | 1093.0 | 12.0 | 0.8 |
| Tampa-S. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 1351.0 | 0.0 | 215.0 | 306.0 | 830.0 | 155.0 | 11.5 |
| Allentown-Bethlehem, PA | 1289.0 | 0.0 | 130.0 | 548.0 | 611.0 | 64.0 | 5.0 |
| Boston, MA | 1272.0 | 0.0 | 43.0 | 367.0 | 862.0 | 56.0 | 4.4 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL | 1264.0 | 0.0 | 175.0 | 599.0 | 490.0 | 163.0 | 12.9 |
| Syracuse, NY | 1197.0 | 0.0 | 247.0 | 339.0 | 611.0 | 192.0 | 16.0 |
| Seattle, WA | 1020.0 | 106.0 | 356.0 | 320.0 | 238.0 | 258.0 | 25.3 |
| * Persons of Ukrainian ancerstry 18 years or older. Source: 2000 US census, 5% sample. | |||||||
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 11, 2004, No. 2, Vol. LXXII
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