Texas 8th-Ranked Overall Among 'Best And Worst States For Military Retirees' Report

AUSTIN, TX — Timed to coincide with Military Appreciation Month, a personal finance website has compiled a report on the Best & Worst States for Military Retirees for 2017, ranking Texas as the eighth-best state for the population segment.

The list this year is suffused with more import given significant changes underfoot this year in the military pension system. To help troops plan their post-service lives, the personal finance website WalletHub has analyzed the 50 states and District of Columbia across 22 key indicators of retirement-friendliness toward veterans.

The compilation examines metrics ranging from job opportunities for veterans to housing affordability to quality of VA hospitals. By that reckoning, Texas was ranked in the various categories when compared to other regions on a scale of 1 being best to 25 being average:

• 11th – % of Homeless Veterans.
• 14th – Veteran Job Opportunities.
• 17th – Housing Affordability.
• 27th – % of Veteran-Owned Businesses.
• 12th – Number of VA Benefits-Administration Facilities per Number of Veterans.
• 9th – Cost-of-Living Index.
• 4th – Number of VA Health Facilities per Number of Veterans.

For the full report, click here.

Ahead of Memorial Day, WalletHub also provided some military fun facts:

• 102 – Number of members in the 115th Congress who have served in the U.S. military.
• 25 – Number of American cities that have claimed to be the birthplace of Memorial Day.
• 818 – Number of hot dogs consumed every second from Memorial Day to Labor Day (seven billion total).
• 20 to 90 Percent off – Discounts shoppers can expect during Memorial Day weekend sales.
• $139+ Million – Estimated value of items that will be lost this Memorial Day weekend.

Besting Texas in slots 1-8, respectively, were: Florida; Montana; New Hampshire; Wyoming; South Carolina; Alaska; and Maine.

>>> U.S. Department of Defense photo shows U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Lilly, a joint tactical air controller with the 57th Operations Group, paying tribute to a fallen veteran May 28, 2013, at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Nevada via WikiMedia Commons