New county-by-county data maps America's veteran 'service deserts' — and the widest gap is in the Florida Panhandle

Santa Rosa County, Florida is home to 24,169 military veterans — and just 17 veteran-serving resources in a national directory of verified services, the widest gap of any county in America.

That finding comes from the Veteran Service Deserts dataset, released as free open data by Wounded Warriors, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 86-1336741) that operates one of the largest open, machine-readable directories of verified U.S. veteran resources — more than 144,800 records spanning VA medical facilities, county veterans service officers, mental-health providers, housing programs, and employment services.

The dataset joins U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey five-year veteran population counts to that directory by county FIPS code, then scores each of 2,002 U.S. counties — every county with at least 1,000 veterans — by the ratio of veterans to resources that serve them. A higher gap score means more veterans competing for fewer nearby services.

The rankings put numbers on something veteran families and county service officers have long described anecdotally: where a veteran lives can matter as much as what they earned.

Among the findings:

Santa Rosa County, Florida — in the Panhandle east of Pensacola, with one of the densest veteran populations in the country — ranks first nationally, with 24,169 veterans and 17 listed resources.

In Texas, Bandera County in the Hill Country is the most under-served: 2,275 veterans share two listed resources.

The dataset names the single most under-served county in every state, which means every newsroom, county commission, and regional funder has a local number to work with.

The gap is not always rural. Powhatan County, Virginia — within commuting distance of Richmond — ranks second nationally with 2,580 veterans and a single listed resource.

"Resolution matters," said Dillon Parkes, founder of Wounded Warriors. "The veteran in a 200-person rural tract who can't access mental health services within 30 miles is invisible at the city or ZIP level. At the tract level, that veteran shows up. We can route them to the right resource, or — if there isn't one — flag the gap to the foundation that funds expansion."

The nonprofit built the dataset for journalists, grantmakers, and county officials rather than for fundraising appeals: the full county table is downloadable as a CSV under a CC-BY 4.0 open license, the methodology is published alongside it, and the underlying directory is queryable through a free public API that requires no key.

For veterans and families, the more practical companion may be the directory itself. The organization publishes printable resource guides for the 300 largest veteran counties, step-by-step guides for VA claims and benefits in English and Spanish, and a ZIP-code search that covers all 50 states and the U.S. territories. Every county guide leads with the same information a county veterans service officer would give first: where to find free, accredited help with a claim — CVSOs charge nothing, and no legitimate organization charges a veteran to file.

What should a reader do with a number like Santa Rosa's? The organization suggests three uses. County officials can compare their gap score against neighboring counties when budgeting veteran service offices. Regional funders can use the rankings to direct grants where the veterans-per-resource ratio is worst rather than where applications happen to come from. And families can check what actually exists nearby before a crisis — the directory lists every resource it counts, so a county's number is also a clickable list.

The dataset will be refreshed as the directory grows and as new Census vintages publish, the organization said. County rankings, the downloadable CSV, and the methodology are available at warriorsfund.org/veteran-service-deserts, and printable county guides at warriorsfund.org/county-guides.

Veterans in crisis, or anyone worried about one, can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing 1, by texting 838255, or by chatting at veteranscrisisline.net. The line is free, confidential, and staffed 24/7, with Spanish-speaking responders available.

Disclosure: Veteran News is a Wounded Warriors initiative. The dataset described in this story is published by Wounded Warriors (EIN 86-1336741), the nonprofit founded by the founder of this publication's parent network.