Some groups are much more represented than others in the U.S. military, and we'll start by looking at where they come from.
According to data provided by the Department of Defense, people between the ages of 18 and 24 from Florida, Georgia, or Maine, are more likely to join the armed forces than their counterparts in lower enlistment-rate states like North Dakota or Utah.
These differences exist at the regional level as well. In 2013, 43.5% of all military recruits came from the "South Region" of the U.S. despite it having only 36.4% of the country's 18-24 year-old civilian population.
On the above map, some of the lowest rates of state-by-state enlistment are in New England and the Northeast, Maine notwithstanding. The Northeast of the U.S. was the most underrepresented region of the country for recruitment in 2013 — despite having 18.2% of the 18-24 year-old civilian population only 13.7% of new enlistments came from this area.
Here's the data on state-by-state enlistment rates but grouped into regional subsets:
"A soldier's demographic characteristics are of little importance in the military, which values honor, leadership, self-sacrifice, courage, and integrity-qualities that cannot be quantified," Sheana Watkins and James Sherk cautioned in a 2008 Heritage Foundation study of the backgrounds of U.S. servicemembers. "Demographic characteristics are a poor proxy for the quality of those who serve in the armed forces," they continue, "but they can help to explain which Americans volunteer for military service and why."
As this map suggests, there may be regional differences — be they cultural, economic, or historical in their nature or cause — underlying the composition of today's U.S. military.
We'll be analyzing more aspects of military demographic soon, including how some groups are very over- or underrepresented.
SEE ALSO: America's biggest arms sale of 2014 is to a country with 250,000 citizens