In January, NPP released part 1 of its analysis of new Active-duty Army recruits, looking at overall educational attainment and quality. In this second installment, NPP analyzes the 2008 recruitment data by race, educational attainment, quality, income, and other demographic characteristics. This is the fifth year in row that the National Priorities Project has obtained data from the US Army Recruiting Command on all non-prior service active-duty and reserve accessions, through the Freedom of Information Act.  Each year NPP compiles these data into geographical areas by zip code, county, and state, and offers them on its searchable online NPP Database. 

The summary analysis below  is an overview of the characteristics of this new cohort of accessions into the US Active-duty Army.   Data on Army Reserves can be found on the NPP database.

Recruits by Race and Ethnicity:  Overview

Traditionally, Hispanic youth have been an underrepresented but growing segment of the Army population, while Black youth have been consistently overrepresented, with their shares falling over time. Fiscal Year 2008 data show an interesting slowing or reversal of this trend, with the Hispanic share of new recruits falling since 2005, and the Black share jumping from 14.9% in 2007 to 16.6% in 2008.

The table below shows the percentage of Army recruits belonging to each race and ethnicity group by year.  Data for 2004 by race were not analyzed due to a change in the race categories.  Please note that Hispanic ethnicity is not considered a race by either the Army Recruiting Command or the US Census Bureau.   A recruit can belong to a race group as well as an ethnicity group. In all of the tables and charts that follow, we have set the “Hispanic” category apart to differentiate it from a race group, and to ensure against double counting.

Active-duty Army Recruits by Age: New Recruits Getting Younger

The average age of a new Active-duty Army recruit is 21.7.  In 2008, 52% of recruits were under the age of 21.  This is up from 48.5% in 2007.  More than four-fifths of new recruits are 24 or younger. See Chart 1.  

In FY 2006, the military increased the maximum age of recruits from 35 to 42 for FY 2006. Prior to this increase, the DoD reported for FY 2004 that 61.9% were under 21 years of age, and 87.5% of all recruits were 24 and under.

 Active-duty Army Recruits by Race and ‘Quality’

The Department of Defense (DoD) defines 'high quality' as those recruits who are bothin  tier 1 (ie. they have a regular high school diploma or above) AND have scored in the upper half of test takers on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT). The DoD norms the scores of the test through its wide administration of the test on youth across the country in high schools and elsewhere (not just recruits).

The following table shows the percentage of non-prior service active-duty Army recruits who are defined by the Army as 'high quality.'

Only 43% of recruits met the ‘quality’ criteria in 2008. For recruits of color, the results are worse. Only 34% percent of Blacks and 45.3 percent of Asian Americans met this criteria. For Native Americans, the percentage was 38.3.  Only 37% of recruits identifying as Hispanic were considered 'High Quality'. Interestingly, these numbers more often reflect scores on the AFQT while obscuring educational attainment levels.

When the two criteria for ‘high quality’ are broken down into their component parts for each race and ethnicity group, a different pattern emerges. A much higher percentage of Black recruits have regular high school diplomas than do white recruits. The same is true for Asian American and Hispanic recruits. Native American recruits are the only race or ethnicity group with lower high school graduation rates than whites.  See Chart 2.

It is the second part of the 'high quality' criteria that bars most recruits of color from entry: the test scores. Only 42% of Black recruits scored in the 50^th percentile or above on the AFQT, while 62% of White recruits received such scores. Native Americans as a group scored higher than all other groups except for Asian Americans.  Only 48% of Hispanic recruits scored in the top half of all test takers. See Chart 3.

Since the 'high quality' category is what is used to assign new recruits to employment grades, this fact is particularly important when looking at the differential opportunities and risks associated with joining the Army, depending on one’s race.

Recruits by Race and Gender: Recruits of Color More Likely than Whites to be Female

Overall, the percentage of new recruits who are female has remained between 16% and 17% since 2006.  However, recruits of color are more likely to be female - the percentage of new Black recruits who are female was 27.7 in 2008.  The same is true of Hispanic recruits.  More than 18% of new Hispanic recruits were female in 2008.  See Chart 4.

Recruits by Race and Region

NPP calculates the Army recruitment rate by counting the number of recruits per thousand youth ages 15-24. Youth population numbers are from the US Census Bureau’s Population Estimates program.

The overall recruitment rate for the US has remained steady at 1.6 recruits per thousand youth since 2004. Recruitment rates are highest for all race groups in the South.  This is also true of Hispanic recruitment rates.  See Chart 5 for a regional breakdown of recruitment rates by race and ethnicity.

The information is also broken out by state.  For Black recruitment rates (recruits per thousand black youth) by state see Table 1.  For Hispanic recruitment rates (recruits per thousand Hispanic youth) by state, see Table 2.  For Whites, see Table 3.  County-level recruitment rates by race are also available on the NPP Database.

Active-duty Army Recruits by Neighborhood Income

For the fifth year in a row, NPP has found that youth from low- to middle-income neighborhoods are over-represented among new Army recruits.  

Youth living in the richest 20% of the income distribution are under-represented among new active-duty Army recruits, and that under-representation has increased since 2005.  Youth living in neighborhoods in the lowest 10% of the income distribution are also under-represented, though less so in 2008 than in 2005. 

Youth living in neighborhoods with a median household income of $30,850 to $57,853 are over-represented among new Army recruits.  To put this range in perspective, note that the median household income for the US as a whole was $50,170 in 2008.  For a family of four, the 200% poverty guidelines 2008 was $42,400. This guideline is used to determine eligibility for benefits for some government assistance programs. See Chart 6.