Indianapolis Ranks Low On Best Places For Veterans List

A recent ranking compared the 100 largest cities in America to determine the best and worst places for veterans to live after leaving the armed forces. The financial advising website WalletHub ranked Indianapolis near the bottom at number 96.

The company based the rankings on each city’s veteran unemployment rates, economy, quality of life issues and the ease of access to VA health facilities. Indianapolis came up especially short in “quality of life” metrics which included the current veteran population and even the number of veteran discounts at restaurants and entertainment venues.

Wes Wood is the director of INvets, a veteran employment service. He says he's disappointed by the ranking, but it didn’t take into account many of the recent nonprofit and government efforts to attract veterans to the area.

“The city of Indianapolis has made a lot of progress; the state has made a lot of progress,” Wood says. “One of the things that is not included in that ranking is what types of nonprofits are active [and] what state agencies are doing to work with veterans in the local area.” 

Wood says the state is trying to attract veterans by removing taxes from military pensions and making it easier to connect to employers. 

Contact Justin at jhicks@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @Hicks_JustinM.