Did you know...

[AngelBear]

- The number of U.S. armed forces personnel who served in World War II between Dec. 1, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946 was 16.1 million.

- The average length of active-duty by U.S. military personnel during WWII was 33 months.

- The proportion of U.S. military personnel who served abroad during WWII was 73 percent.

- The average time U.S. personnel served overseas during WWII was 16 months.

- A total of 292,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were killed in battle in WWII.

- The number of other deaths sustained by U.S. forces during WWII was 114,000.

- 671,000 U.S. troops were wounded during WWII.

- 5.7 million World War II veterans were counted in the 2000 Census. The census identified the period of service for World War II veterans as September 1940 to July 1947.

- The estimated number of WWII veterans living in California in 2002 was 475,000, the most in any state. Other states with high numbers of WWII vets included Florida (439,000), New York (284,000), Pennsylvania (280,000), Texas (267,000) and Ohio (208,000).

- The estimated number of women in 2002 who were WWII veterans was 210,000. These women comprised 4.4 percent of WWII vets.

- The proportion of all veterans in April 2000 who were WWII veterans, was 22 percent.

- The median age of WWII veterans when the last census was conducted was 76.7 years old.

- The proportion of WWII veterans who were still employed in 2000 was 11.6 percent.

- The number of WWII veterans in 2002 who received compensation for service-connected disabilities was 440,000, about half the number in 1990 (876,000) and nearly two-thirds less than the nearly 1.2 million disabled WWII vets in 1980.

- The projected national expenditure for veteran’s benefits in 2004 was $62 billion.

Data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau.