Veteran Livability Index

National map — color states by:

Click any state to drill down. Click any county on the state map or in the table — they stay in sync.

Select a state

All counties — sortable, searchable, clickable

VA disability comp purchasing power

Take the published 2026 VA disability comp rate and divide by the local Regional Price Parity. This is what your benefit actually buys in different places.

Monthly VA payment $ (default = 100% rating, single, no deps, 2026 schedule)

Top 10 states by Livability score

Methodology & sources

Livability score: equal-weighted z-score composite of five components (county employment rate, RPP-adjusted vet income, VAMC density, inverse rent burden, inverse poverty), rescaled 0–100 with 50 = US mean.

Live county data LIVE Census ACS 5-Year 2023 — vet population, vet median income, home value, rent, household income, employment, poverty.

State-level inherited PROXY BEA RPP 2023 + BLS 2025 vet unemployment — counties inherit state value (no county-level vet unemp series exists).

SYNTH SYNTH VA healthcare access — count of VAMCs per state (live drive-time API blocked, FOIA-pending).

2026 VA disability comp: $4,098.87/mo at 100% rating, single, no deps (38 CFR 3.4). Real-value = comp ÷ (RPP/100). When you switch the VA section to county mode, county-level cost differences come from median rent and home value within the state — RPP itself is uniform within state in the BEA dataset.