Study Finds Washington State Not Great for Veterans

Washington has been ranked as the 6th-worst state for military retirees according to a recent study by WalletHub.

The personal finance website said its analysis used a data set of 30 key metrics, ranging from veterans per capita to number of VA health facilities to job opportunities for veterans. Those 30 metrics then resulted in scores across three categories: economic environment, quality of life and health care. The District of Columbia was included among the states, so rankings ranged from 1st to 51st.

Washington never made it out of the bottom 40% in any of the categories, ranking 32nd in economic environment, 34th in quality of life and dead last in health care.

Even with an overall ranking of 46th, the Evergreen State wasn't the worst in the Northwest. Oregon ranked 51st overall, largely due to coming in last in quality of life and 46th in health care. Idaho on the other hand performed very well, coming in 12th among all the states.

The study also found that 'red states' are much friendlier to military retirees as compared to their 'blue' counterparts. States that voted Republican in the 2020 election ranked better than 20th on average, while the states that went to Joe Biden last year ranked a little worse than 32nd on the aggregate.

The full study can be found here.