Data · VA compensation
VA disability compensation, county by county
How many veterans in each county already receive VA disability compensation, how VA rated them, from the lowest band to a full rating, and how the count moved over the last year. We read the Department of Veterans Affairs county file cell for cell, add counties up to states and the nation, and hold the national total and every rating band to VA's own Annual Benefits Report.
What is in this dataset?
Veterans receiving VA disability compensation in every U.S. county on September 30, 2025 (fiscal year 2025), from the Department of Veterans Affairs county file on data.va.gov: the total and the count in each combined service-connected rating band (0 to 20%, 30 to 40%, 50 to 60%, 70 to 90% and 100%), by age group (17 to 44, 45 to 64, 65 and over) and by sex, with the same county's total and 100% count a year earlier. One record per county (3,144, in the 50 states and DC), per state and DC (the sum of its counties), for Puerto Rico, for the other territories, for veterans paid abroad, for unknown addresses and for the US. Cells VA suppressed to protect privacy are left empty and marked suppressed, never estimated.
Use it to size a veterans' disability practice in the counties a firm serves: how many veterans already receive compensation there, how many have a low or middle rating and how many are already rated fully disabled, how fast the count is growing, and how a county compares with its state. Pair it with the law-offices or deserts datasets by county FIPS code. Agents can look up a state and its counties, compare up to ten states, or search a county by name.
- Records
- 3,200
- Look up by
- 53
- state
- Primary source
- 3,200
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
Read from VA's 'FY 2025 Disability Compensation Recipients by County' CSV on data.va.gov (and the FY 2024 file for the year-earlier figures), kept cell for cell: a blank cell is VA's suppression and stays null. County rows are matched to vintage-2025 county FIPS codes in the shared crosswalks; state rows are the sum of their county rows, so a state figure leaves out the few veterans in suppressed county cells and says so. A gate re-reads every cell from the saved files and fifty from the live file, checks that the rating bands add up to each total, that counties add up to states and states to the US, and holds the US total and each band within 1% of the VBA Annual Benefits Report for the same year.
- Period covered
- September 30, 2025 to September 30, 2025
- Places
- The whole US, states and counties
- How often we refresh it
- Once a year
- The source's next release
- January 2027
- Records read
- October 28, 2026
Official sources
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Veterans Benefits Administration; National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics), by bulk download. Listed on data.va.gov with License https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (CC0 1.0) and Public Access Level 'public'; a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105)..
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Veterans Benefits Administration; National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics), by bulk download. Listed on data.va.gov with License https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (CC0 1.0) and Public Access Level 'public'; a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. 105). Used for the FY 2024 comparison only..
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration (Annual Benefits Report FY 2025, Compensation), by bulk download. A work of the U.S. government, public domain (17 U.S.C. 105). Used only as the control total in check.py..
The sources the records cite most
What does a record look like?
-
United States: 6,331,627 veterans received VA disability compensation on September 30, 2025 (FY 2025) (at least; some county counts are suppressed). By combined rating: 1,845,855 rated 100%, 1,868,474 rated 70% to 90%, 728,907 at 50% to 60%, 663,882 at 30% to 40% and 1,218,210 at 0% to 20%. 6,299 recipients sit in rating cells VA suppressed to protect privacy. A year earlier (FY 2024): 5,985,189 (+346,438).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: VA, FY 2025 Disability Compensation Recipients by County (data.va.gov)
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Texas: 682,628 veterans received VA disability compensation on September 30, 2025 (FY 2025) (at least; some county counts are suppressed). By combined rating: 237,881 rated 100%, 207,792 rated 70% to 90%, 71,555 at 50% to 60%, 60,583 at 30% to 40% and 103,663 at 0% to 20%. 1,154 recipients sit in rating cells VA suppressed to protect privacy. A year earlier (FY 2024): 639,768 (+42,860).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: VA, FY 2025 Disability Compensation Recipients by County (data.va.gov)
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Florida: 538,014 veterans received VA disability compensation on September 30, 2025 (FY 2025). By combined rating: 170,245 rated 100%, 155,820 rated 70% to 90%, 58,818 at 50% to 60%, 53,477 at 30% to 40% and 99,654 at 0% to 20%. A year earlier (FY 2024): 503,246 (+34,768).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: VA, FY 2025 Disability Compensation Recipients by County (data.va.gov)
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Virginia: 275,063 veterans received VA disability compensation on September 30, 2025 (FY 2025). By combined rating: 92,604 rated 100%, 79,874 rated 70% to 90%, 32,556 at 50% to 60%, 29,083 at 30% to 40% and 40,859 at 0% to 20%. 87 recipients sit in rating cells VA suppressed to protect privacy. A year earlier (FY 2024): 257,165 (+17,898).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: VA, FY 2025 Disability Compensation Recipients by County (data.va.gov)
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 28 main columns means
jurisdiction- Two-letter code of the state, DC or Puerto Rico, or US (the US record and the rows for other territories, veterans abroad and unknown addresses)
level- county, state (states, DC and Puerto Rico), other-territories, abroad, unknown or us
county- 5-digit county FIPS code (vintage 2025; Connecticut planning regions); empty for other levels
countyName- County name as the Census Bureau writes it
stateName- State name
fiscalYear- VA fiscal year of the count (it ends September 30)
asOf- The day the count describes: veterans receiving compensation on September 30 of the fiscal year
value- Same as recipients
recipients- Veterans receiving VA disability compensation; null where VA suppressed the count
rating_0_20- Recipients with a combined service-connected rating of 0% to 20%
rating_30_40- Combined rating 30% to 40%
rating_50_60- Combined rating 50% to 60%
rating_70_90- Combined rating 70% to 90%
rating_100- Combined rating 100%. VA's Annual Benefits Report counts veterans paid at the 100% rate for individual unemployability at their combined rating, and this file's bands match that report within 1%
rating_suppressed- Recipients in rating cells VA suppressed: the total less the published bands (0 when all five are published)
age_17_44- Recipients aged 17 to 44
age_45_64- Recipients aged 45 to 64
age_65_plus- Recipients aged 65 or older
male- Male recipients
female- Female recipients (age and sex groups can fall short of the total where VA has no birth date or sex on file)
share_rated_70_plus- Percent of recipients rated 70% or higher (70-90% plus 100%), where both cells are published
share_rated_100- Percent of recipients rated 100%
recipients_prev- Recipients a year earlier (previous fiscal year's county file)
rating_100_prev- Recipients rated 100% a year earlier
change_recipients- recipients less recipients_prev
change_pct- change_recipients as a percent of recipients_prev
countiesSuppressed- State and US records: counties whose total VA suppressed (their veterans are missing from the sum)
suppressedFields- Fields VA left blank for this row (suppressed to protect privacy)
How do I use it in my own tools?
vacomp_lookup- For one two-letter state code (or US): veterans receiving VA disability compensation in the state and every county in it, by combined rating band, age and sex, with the count a year earlier; suppressed cells are null.
vacomp_compare- The VA disability compensation records of up to 10 states (two-letter codes) or US side by side: recipients, rating bands, share rated 70% or higher and the change over a year.
vacomp_search- VA disability compensation records whose text matches the words given, such as a county name ("Bexar County"), a state name or a 5-digit county FIPS code.
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 28, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23744209 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: va-compensation.csv 2613 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: va-compensation.json 6356 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). VA disability compensation recipients by county and combined rating (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23744210
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, VA disability compensation recipients by county and combined rating, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23744210, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote)
Not legal advice. These are counts of veterans already receiving VA disability compensation, not claims, appeals or unmet need: a rating says how VA scored a service-connected condition, not whether a veteran needs a lawyer or could get a higher rating. Questions about a claim are for an accredited attorney, agent or veterans service officer.
What changed recently?
- 2026-10-28 · Veterans receiving VA disability compensation on September 30, 2025 (FY 2025) in every county, state and the US, by combined rating band, age and sex, with the FY 2024 count for comparison: 6,331,627 recipients in VA's county file. (source)
The full log is in changes.json.
What are the limits?
- These are veterans already receiving compensation at the end of the fiscal year, not claims filed, claims denied, appeals or people waiting for a decision. A county with few recipients may have many veterans who never applied.
- A combined rating is VA's score for a veteran's service-connected conditions. It is not a measure of need, income or of whether a veteran could get a higher rating, and it says nothing about who needs a lawyer.
- VA leaves small counts blank to protect veterans' privacy, and blanks other cells so the small ones cannot be worked out. We keep every blank as suppressed and never estimate it, so a state total built from its counties leaves out the few veterans in suppressed county cells.
- VA publishes no state rows in this file, so each state figure is the sum of its counties. Puerto Rico comes as one row with no municipio split, and the other territories come as one combined row.
- Veterans are placed by the address VA pays them at, which can differ from where they live part of the year. Veterans paid abroad and those with no usable address have their own rows and count only in the national total.
- Age and sex groups can fall short of the total because VA has no birth date or sex on file for some veterans. The county file's national total sits slightly below the Annual Benefits Report figure for the same day, because the two are built from different address sources.
- Records older than 400 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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