thedrifter
09-08-06, 08:10 AM
Deseret Morning News, Friday, September 08, 2006
Poor overrepresented in military?
Study also shows Utah providing few recruits
By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News
An analysis of Army recruiting data, derived from the ZIP codes of new active-duty recruits, shows soldiers are coming from more low- to middle-income neighborhoods than from wealthier areas.
The analysis was released Thursday by the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Massachusetts.
Additional data from the group, on total military (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines) recruits per 1,000 youths in fiscal year 2005, put Utah near the bottom of all states, with 2.5 per 1,000 youths ages 15-24. The top two states were Montana and Texas, at 5.7 and 5.2 per 1,000, with the national average being 3.8 per 1,000.
One reason for Utah's low ranking may be linked to the large number of young men in Utah who serve two-year missions for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to both the NPP and an Army recruiter in West Valley City.
"We should be able to say who exactly is serving," said NPP research director Anita Dancs of the national data. "Who is it who's going off to be in war? Where are those young people coming from?
"We think those are valid questions to ask when it's quite serious to be a soldier involved in an active conflict — it's a huge risk," she added. "If we're going to wage a war, then all parts of society should be bearing some of the costs of the war."
Most Army recruits in the 2005 fiscal year came from Salt Lake County, with 120 new soldiers. That was followed by Davis County, with 87, and Cache and Box Elder counties, at 26 each. All other Utah counties reporting to NPP had less than 10 recruits in the 2005 fiscal year. Utah County was not included in NPP's data.
An Army recruiting official in Utah said Thursday that he could "not verify the data" in the report and referred questions to the Army's office of public affairs. A national Army spokeswoman said late Thursday that she had not seen the data and could not comment.
Utah's total youth population aged 15-24 in the 2005 fiscal year was 433,818, with 1,075 of those youths joining one of the four branches of active-duty military in that time, according to NPP data, which relied on information from the Department of Defense.
The NPP considers low- to middle-income neighborhoods to be those having a median household income between $30,000 and $55,000, a group the NPP says is "over-represented" in active-duty Army recruits. The NPP makes its comparison to recruits coming from "wealthier" areas, where NPP says the median household income is above $55,000. The latter group was already "under-represented" in active-duty Army numbers for new recruits, according to NPP's data from the previous year.
"It's not really clear why that's happened," said Dancs.
Overall, she added, the Army had a difficult time recruiting in 2005, which Dancs attributed to more job opportunities during an economic upswing in this country. In that context, however, young people who start out with "limited economic opportunities" may still be more likely to join the armed forces, Dancs said.
For answers on how to tip the scales toward more balance of recruits from all economic backgrounds, Dancs suggested that people contact their elected representatives in Congress. "They should answer to what is happening," she said.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
Ellie
Poor overrepresented in military?
Study also shows Utah providing few recruits
By Stephen Speckman
Deseret Morning News
An analysis of Army recruiting data, derived from the ZIP codes of new active-duty recruits, shows soldiers are coming from more low- to middle-income neighborhoods than from wealthier areas.
The analysis was released Thursday by the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Massachusetts.
Additional data from the group, on total military (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines) recruits per 1,000 youths in fiscal year 2005, put Utah near the bottom of all states, with 2.5 per 1,000 youths ages 15-24. The top two states were Montana and Texas, at 5.7 and 5.2 per 1,000, with the national average being 3.8 per 1,000.
One reason for Utah's low ranking may be linked to the large number of young men in Utah who serve two-year missions for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to both the NPP and an Army recruiter in West Valley City.
"We should be able to say who exactly is serving," said NPP research director Anita Dancs of the national data. "Who is it who's going off to be in war? Where are those young people coming from?
"We think those are valid questions to ask when it's quite serious to be a soldier involved in an active conflict — it's a huge risk," she added. "If we're going to wage a war, then all parts of society should be bearing some of the costs of the war."
Most Army recruits in the 2005 fiscal year came from Salt Lake County, with 120 new soldiers. That was followed by Davis County, with 87, and Cache and Box Elder counties, at 26 each. All other Utah counties reporting to NPP had less than 10 recruits in the 2005 fiscal year. Utah County was not included in NPP's data.
An Army recruiting official in Utah said Thursday that he could "not verify the data" in the report and referred questions to the Army's office of public affairs. A national Army spokeswoman said late Thursday that she had not seen the data and could not comment.
Utah's total youth population aged 15-24 in the 2005 fiscal year was 433,818, with 1,075 of those youths joining one of the four branches of active-duty military in that time, according to NPP data, which relied on information from the Department of Defense.
The NPP considers low- to middle-income neighborhoods to be those having a median household income between $30,000 and $55,000, a group the NPP says is "over-represented" in active-duty Army recruits. The NPP makes its comparison to recruits coming from "wealthier" areas, where NPP says the median household income is above $55,000. The latter group was already "under-represented" in active-duty Army numbers for new recruits, according to NPP's data from the previous year.
"It's not really clear why that's happened," said Dancs.
Overall, she added, the Army had a difficult time recruiting in 2005, which Dancs attributed to more job opportunities during an economic upswing in this country. In that context, however, young people who start out with "limited economic opportunities" may still be more likely to join the armed forces, Dancs said.
For answers on how to tip the scales toward more balance of recruits from all economic backgrounds, Dancs suggested that people contact their elected representatives in Congress. "They should answer to what is happening," she said.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
Ellie