Health and wellbeing of UK armed forces veterans: Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK

Question 1

Main points

Accepted Answer

Just under half (48.7%) of veterans were disabled (a much higher proportion than identified in Census 2021 or that we expect among the actual UK veteran population) and just under a third of veterans across the UK said they felt lonely always, often or some of the time (31.3%).

Loneliness and disability status were associated and, among disabled veterans, 39.4% felt lonely always, often or some of the time, compared with 22.9% of veterans who were not disabled.

Over three-quarters of veterans were registered with a dentist, and dentist registrations were associated with other health and wellbeing factors. Disabled veterans, and veterans who felt lonely always, often or some of the time, were less likely to have registered with a dentist than their counterparts.

The main reasons given by veterans for not registering with a dentist were “Because I found registering too difficult” and “Other”. Qualitative analysis of “Other” responses highlighted lack of NHS dentist availability, not being able to get a dentist in the local area and lengthy waiting lists to register with an NHS dentist as key themes.

Question 2

About the Veterans’ Survey 2022

Accepted Answer

These statistics are official statistics in development, published as research, and are not official statistics.

In December 2023, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published initial research on the Veterans’ Survey 2022 in Veterans’ Survey 2022, demographic overview and coverage analysis of the survey. Coverage analysis of veteran respondents from England and Wales, as compared with veterans from Census 2021, showed aggregate analysis of the Veteran’s Survey will better represent veterans that have ever served as regulars as there was an under-representation of reserve veterans. Veterans with a disability were over-represented, and there was a small under-representation of those that identified in each high-level ethnic group but the high-level “White” ethnic group. There was also an under-representation of veterans aged 75 years and over, which weighting by age has mitigated.

In August 2024, the ONS published the first two themed publications for the Veterans’ Survey 2022 in the Life after service in the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022 report and in the Preparedness to leave the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK report.

Caution is necessary in assuming findings are representative of the whole veteran population. The Veterans’ Survey 2022 has been partially weighted to compensate for known biases in age among respondents from England and Wales only, some biases remain as outlined in Veterans’ Survey 2022, demographic overview and coverage analysis, UK: December 2023.

The ONS also published the Veterans’ Survey methodology, which outlined the survey design, development and processes as well as the methodology used to analyse and partially weight the veterans’ survey by age to produce UK-level analysis and measure uncertainty in more detail.

All quantitative UK data presented are based on these weighted estimates. Veterans’ Survey 2022 estimates are presented with 95% confidence intervals in our data. We only refer to a difference throughout where we are confident this difference is a statistically significant difference based on the associated 95% confidence intervals found in our accompanying datasets. This article focuses on UK-level data only. Additional UK-level data and an exploration of whether we see the same patterns at country level (where the latter analysis was feasible) are contained within footnotes in our accompanying datasets.

Question 3

Health and wellbeing

Accepted Answer

Across the UK, just under half of veterans (48.7%) were disabled under the Equality Act 2010. This is higher than the proportion of disabled veterans identified in England and Wales from Census 2021 (32.1%), which may reflect that disabled veterans were more motivated to respond to the survey or engage with organisations that promoted the Veterans’ Survey 2022. The proportion of disabled veterans is slightly higher than that reported in Veterans’ Survey 2022, demographic overview and coverage analysis of the survey which considered coverage of the survey, as this breakdown excluded those who didn’t answer.

Figure 1: Similar proportions of veterans who were disabled or were not disabled responded to the survey

Weighted percentages of veteran responses by disability. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” and “Don’t know” are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

When asked: “Do you have complex and long-term healthcare needs that require a personalised care plan to support your health and wellbeing?”, 14.5% of veterans reported that they did.

Veterans who required a personalised care plan were more likely to have been disabled (85.4%) than those who did not (39.1%).

Whether a veteran required a personalised care plan was similar by personal and service-related characteristics as our findings for disability. For this reason, this analysis focuses only on disability. All findings relating to veterans’ responses to the personal care plan question can be found in our accompanying dataset.

Veterans were also asked “How often do you feel lonely?”.

Figure 2: Veterans were least likely to have felt lonely often or always

Weighted percentages of veteran responses by how often a veteran felt lonely. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” responses are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Just under a third (31.3%) of veterans said they felt lonely always, often or some of the time. The ONS’s data for the household population of Great Britain (collected from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey), covering a similar time period, estimated a lower proportion (27.0%) of adults from the general population who reported feeling lonely always, often, or some of the time. This data also showed that in the general population, males and older adults were typically less likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time than females and younger adults. The veteran population is older and more male than the general population, despite this, veterans were more likely to have felt lonely always often or some of the time than the general population. However, there are known links between disability status and loneliness, therefore this finding may be explained by the over-representation of disabled veterans in our survey.

Figure 3: Of veterans who were disabled, 39.4% felt lonely always, often or some of the time, compared with 22.9% of those who were not disabled

Weighted percentages of veteran responses by disability, by how often a veteran felt lonely. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” and “Don’t know” responses are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

An average combined score on the loneliness scale was also calculated to compare the frequency of loneliness across personal and service-related characteristics. The average combined score on the loneliness scale for veterans in our survey was 4.9. A score of 3 indicates “least frequent loneliness” and a score of 9 indicates “most frequent loneliness”. More information about how the score was calculated is available in the glossary. This analysis focusses only on how often a veteran felt lonely as the average score showed similar findings, data for the average combined score on the loneliness scale by personal and service-related factors can be found in our accompanying dataset.

Question 4

GP and dentist registrations

Accepted Answer

Most veterans were registered with a GP (98.4%). Those who were registered were asked “What type of GP are you registered with?” 99.5% were registered with a GP in the NHS (or HSC in Northern Ireland) and 8.2% had private healthcare. Veterans could have selected both options.

Over three-quarters of veterans were registered with a dentist (76.9%). Of those who were registered with a dentist, 62.2% were registered with an NHS (or HSC in Northern Ireland) dentist and 39.5% were registered with a private dentist. Veterans could also have selected both options for this question. The veteran and general populations are not comparable (veterans are typically older and more male than the general population and may have been seeking access to the NHS at different stages of life, depending on how many years they had served). However, this finding is not unique to the veteran population. Data for the general population in England for 23 July to 15 August 2024 showed 52.1% of people in England had used an NHS dentist and 34.2% had used a private dentist.

Even if a veteran were registered with a GP or dentist, this does not mean that the GP or dentist were aware they were a veteran.

Figure 4: The most common reasons for not registering with a GP were “Not had time to register” and “Other” and the most common reasons for not registering with a dentist were “Because I found registering too difficult” and “Other”

Weighted percentages of veteran responses for the reasons they were not registered with a GP and the reasons they were not registered with a dentist. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans who were not registered with a GP were asked to give their reasons for this. Only veterans who were not registered with a dentist were asked to give reasons for this.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Qualitative analysis of the question: “Can you tell us what service or support would have been helpful for you that is currently lacking?” has been completed for respondents who gave “Other” as an answer for not being registered with a dentist. Details on how the qualitative analysis has been completed can be found in the Data sources and quality section. Content analysis of these responses is unweighted.

Of those whose response was “Other”, over 10% mentioned dentists, which has allowed us to give more context to this finding. The most prevalent themes were:

lack of NHS dentist availability
not being able to get a dentist in the local area
lengthy waiting lists to register with an NHS dentist

Responses on these topics included:

“Registration with a dentist, No one in my area are taking new patients”

“Dentist. A nightmare to get registered locally with NHS and cannot afford private care.”

Further responses related to not being able to register with a dentist mentioned:

the Armed Forces Covenant
priority access
veteran ID cards
additional support during transition from service to civilian life to register with a dentist

Responses on these topics included:

“Access to NHS Dental care. Three years after leaving the Services I still cannot register with an NHS dentist and the local NHS dentists don’t even know about the Military Covenant.”

“Military veterans receive free dental health care whilst serving in the regular Armed Forces. This option is removed on discharge and finding NHS dentists is impossible.”

“There could be better advice on moving into civilian life on dentist and GP support.”

“When leaving the RAF I would have liked some sort of automated linking to a doctor and a dentist.”

“My only issue has been the inability to find an NHS dentist so perhaps a fast track as part of resettlement would have helped.”

There is greater uncertainty surrounding estimates in our quantitative analysis relating to the reasons that participants did not register with a GP. This is because only a small number of veterans were not registered with a GP when they responded to the survey.

Qualitative analysis of the question: “Can you tell us what service or support would have been helpful for you that is currently lacking?” has been completed for respondents who were not registered with a GP. It was not possible to complete analysis on just the small group that said “Other” as an answer for not being registered with a GP.

The NHS was referenced by those who were not registered with a GP in a similar way to those who were not registered with a dentist and responded with ‘Other’ as the reason for not being registered. For example, in relation to the Armed Forces Covenant, veteran ID cards and priority access.

Responses on these topics included:

“I have no GP as I can’t seem to get a booking, my hearing needs fixing.”

“Priority into NHS GP and dentist after leaving forces.”

“Some ID to prove veterans’ status with guaranteed NHS treatment.”

“Registering for a GP’s surgery is a joke. There should be a 24-month window where veterans are given access to basic GP services without having to jump through hurdles.”

“Basic GP support, the so called ‘Covenant’ isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

The following analysis focuses on dentist registrations only, all findings for GP registrations by personal and service-related characteristics can be found in our accompanying dataset.

Question 5

Health and wellbeing by personal demographics

Accepted Answer

This section includes personal demographic breakdowns for the information explored in the previous sections on:

whether a veteran was disabled under the Equality Act 2010
how often a veteran felt lonely
dentist registrations

All findings by personal demographics for these points are outlined in our accompanying datasets. Also included are findings by personal demographics for:

whether a veteran had a personalised care plan
average combined score on the loneliness scale
GP registrations
awareness and use of, and satisfaction with, health and wellbeing support services

Age

The Veterans’ Survey 2022 only includes veterans aged 18 years and over because of the nature of the active combat and wellbeing questions.

We know responses about disability, loneliness and whether a veteran was registered with a dentist had a strong relationship with age and many personal demographics are also associated with age, see our Life after service in the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK article and our Preparedness to leave the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK article. Therefore, in this article, we focus on relationships between a personal characteristic and disability, loneliness or dentist registration, that we expect to exist regardless of the age profile of veterans with that characteristic.

Our accompanying datasets provide information for veteran responses on all themes discussed in this article, by a range of personal demographics.

While health typically has a strong association with age, analysis of our survey coverage shows this was not the case among our survey respondents. This may have been because of high response rates from veterans with a disability, as referenced in the ONS’s Veterans’ Survey 2022, demographic overview and coverage analysis, UK: December 2023 article. However, there was an increase in the proportion of veterans that were disabled for those aged 80 years and over.

Figure 5: Veterans aged 80 years and over were more likely to have been disabled than veterans aged 79 years and under

Weighted percentage of veterans that were disabled by age bands. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

“Age” refers to the age on the last birthday, rather than exact age.

Veterans aged 18 to 59 years old were more likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time than those aged 60 years and over.

Figure 6: Older veterans were less likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time than younger veterans

Weighted percentage of veterans by how often a veteran felt lonely, by age bands. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

“Age” refers to the age on the last birthday, rather than exact age.

Younger veterans were less likely to have registered with a dentist than older veterans, 38.0% of veterans aged 18 to 29 years were registered, compared with 85.1% of veterans aged 80 years and over. Age and number of years since leaving were strongly related, as age increased the number of years since leaving service also increased. As presented in our accompanying dataset, those who left the UK armed forces 20 years or more ago were more likely to have been registered with a dentist than those who left more recently. This may relate to differences in NHS access over time, as well as differences in the length of time individuals have had to register since leaving.

Figure 7: Veterans aged 18 to 49 years were less likely to have registered with a dentist than veterans aged 50 years and over

Weighted percentage of veterans registered with a dentist by age bands. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

“Age” refers to the age on the last birthday, rather than exact age.

Disability and loneliness

As discussed in the Health and wellbeing section, there were known links between disability and loneliness.

Veterans who were disabled were less likely to have registered with a dentist (75.4%) than veterans who were not disabled (78.9%). When asked why they had not registered with a dentist, veterans who were disabled were more likely than veterans who were not disabled to have responded:

“I have a lack of trust in dentists or the health service” (6.8% compared with 4.1%, respectively)
“Because I found registering too difficult” (35.5% compared with 31.0%, respectively)

Veterans who were disabled were less likely than veterans who were not disabled to have responded:

“Did not feel it was important” (6.1% compared with 9.4%)
“Not had time to register” (8.0% compared with 13.9%)

Veterans who felt lonely always, often or some of the time were less likely to have registered with a dentist (69.5%) than veterans who felt lonely occasionally, hardly ever or never (80.5%). The findings relating to reasons for not registering with a dentist for loneliness were similar to those given by disabled veterans.

Figure 8: Veterans who felt lonely always, often or some of the time were more likely to have responded: “Because I found registering too difficult”, “I have a lack of trust in dentists or the health service” and “No home address” and less likely to have responded “I do not visit the dentist” when asked why they had not registered with a dentist than those who felt lonely occasionally, hardly ever or never

Weighted percentage of veterans by reason for not registering with a dentist, by how often a veteran felt lonely. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” responses are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Employment and finance

Veterans who were economically active were less likely to have been disabled than those who were economically inactive. Despite known associations between disability and loneliness, the opposite finding was seen for how often a veteran felt lonely. Those who were economically active were more likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time (37.8%) than those who were economically inactive (25.2%).

Veterans who were economically active were less likely to have registered with a dentist (71.5%) than those who were economically inactive (82.0%). They were also less likely, when asked why they had not registered with a dentist, to have responded:

“I do not visit the dentist” (9.7% compared with 17.1%)
“No home address” (0.4% compared with 2.6%)

Veterans who were economically active were more likely to have responded:

“Because I found registering too difficult” (37.9% compared with 27.1%)
“Not had time to register” (14.4% compared with 4.8%)

Veterans who had claimed Universal Credit, a Personal Independence Payment or Adult Disability Payment in the last month were nearly twice as likely to have been disabled (89.4%) or to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time (58.2%) than those who did not claim (44.9% and 29.0%, respectively). Veterans who claimed a payment were less likely to have registered with a dentist (67.6%) than those who did not claim at least one of the three payments (77.8%). They were more likely to have given the reason for not registering as “I have a lack of trust in dentists or the health service” (8.4% compared with 5.1%).

Veterans’ civilian life

Our Life after service in the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK article, showed there was an association between disability and the extent to which a veteran agreed or disagreed that they had no say in what the government does or that they felt they belonged to their local community.

Veterans who agreed to some extent with the statement “I don’t have any say in what the government does” were more likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time (35.5%) than those who neither agreed nor disagreed (24.2%) and those that disagreed to some extent (23.6%).

Figure 9: As agreement with the statement “I feel like I belong to my local community” increased, the proportion of veterans that felt lonely always, often or some of the time decreased

Weighted percentage of veterans by how often a veteran felt lonely, by the extent to which a veteran agreed or disagreed with the statement “I feel like I belong to my local community”. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Veterans who disagreed to some extent that they belonged to their local community were less likely to be registered with a dentist (64.0%) than those who neither agreed nor disagreed (72.5%) or those who agreed to some extent (83.1%).

Figure 10: Veterans who agreed to some extent with the statement “I feel like I belong to my local community” were less likely to have given “Because I found registering too difficult” and “I have a lack of trust in dentists or the health service” and more likely to have given “I do not visit the dentist” as a reason for not having registered with a dentist than anyone else

Weighted percentage of veterans by reason for having not registered with a dentist, by the extent to which a veteran agreed or disagreed with the statement “I feel like I belong to my local community”. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Only veterans completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked how often they felt lonely.

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” responses are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Question 6

Health and wellbeing by service-related factors

Accepted Answer

This section includes breakdowns by service-related factors for the information explored in the previous sections on:

whether a veteran was disabled under the Equality Act 2010
how often a veteran felt lonely
dentist registrations

All findings by service-related factors for these points are outlined in our accompanying datasets. Also included are findings by service-related factors for:

whether a veteran had a personalised care plan
average combined score on the loneliness scale
GP registrations
awareness and use of, and satisfaction with, health and wellbeing support services

Age is associated with a number of service-related characteristics in our data (for example, length of service, years since leaving and rank) and also to changing perceptions over time of what constitutes behaviours such as bullying as outlined in the ONS’s Veterans’ Survey methodology. In this article, we focus on patterns that we expect to exist regardless of the age profile of veterans, based on assessing the association between the service-related characteristic and disability, loneliness or dentist registration, after adjusting for age.

Our accompanying datasets provide information for veteran responses on all themes discussed in this article, by a range of service-related factors.

Rank

Veterans who served at Officer rank were less likely to have been disabled (41.7%) than those who served below Officer rank (50.9%), and less likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time, 21.4% compared with 34.3%.

Those who served at Officer rank were more likely to have registered with a dentist (86.5%) than those who served below Officer rank (74.1%).

Leaving the UK armed forces

Veterans who were medically discharged were more likely to have been disabled (82.1%) than veterans who left for any other reason: 42.5% of those who left by choice; 50.1% of those who left by end of contract or retirement; 52.6% of those who were made redundant and 48.0% of those that had been subject to compulsory discharge. Veterans who were medically discharged were also more likely to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time (51.0%) than those who left for any other reason, for example 31.1% of those who were made redundant.

Experience during service

There was no evidence of difference in the proportion of veterans who were disabled by whether a veteran was deployed but those who witnessed or took part in operations against enemy forces were more likely to have been disabled (50.3%) than those who did not (40.1%).

Veterans who said they were subject to bullying during service were more likely than those who did not to have been disabled (55.0% compared with 44.4%) and to have felt lonely always, often or some of the time (41.7% compared with 25.8%). Similar findings were seen for those who said they were subject to discrimination or subject to harassment or sexual harassment during service.

Preparedness for life after service in the UK armed forces

As preparedness for life after service increased, the proportion of veterans who felt lonely always, often or some of the time decreased. Of those who felt prepared to some extent for life after service, 20.1% felt lonely always, often or some of the time compared with 29.4% of those who felt neither prepared nor unprepared, and 46.5% of those who felt unprepared to some extent. Figure 11 shows a similar finding was seen for disability, this association is discussed in our Preparedness to leave the UK armed forces: Veterans’ Survey 2022 article.

Figure 11: Veterans who felt prepared to some extent were least likely to have been disabled

Weighted percentage of veterans by disability, by how prepared or unprepared a veteran felt for life after service in the UK armed forces. Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK.

Source: The Veterans’ Survey 2022 from the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Blank responses to this question were removed from this analysis because of high levels of uncertainty.

“Prefer not to say” and “Don’t know” are presented in data tables but removed from this chart because of high levels of uncertainty.

Proportions may not sum to 100.

Veterans who felt prepared to some extent for life after service were more likely to have registered with a dentist (82.5%) than those who felt neither prepared nor unprepared (76.1%) or those who felt unprepared to some extent (70.6%).

Those who felt unprepared to some extent for life after service, when asked why they had not registered with a dentist, were more likely than those who felt prepared to some extent to have responded:

“I have a lack of trust in dentists or the health service” (7.4% compared with 3.1%, respectively)
“Because I found registering too difficult” (38.1% compared with 29.3%, respectively)

Those who felt unprepared to some extent were less likely than those who felt prepared to some extent to have responded:

“Did not feel it was important” (5.9% compared with 9.8%, respectively)

Question 7

Future publications

Accepted Answer

Further findings from the Veterans’ Survey 2022 will be published throughout 2025 and will include themed analysis covering topics such as the finance and housing, and economic activity of UK armed forces veterans.

Question 8

Data about the health and wellbeing of UK armed forces veterans

Accepted Answer

Health, weighted estimates, Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK
Dataset | Released on 4 December 2024

UK armed forces veterans, disability and whether a veteran required a personalised care plan, by personal and service-related characteristics.

GP and dentist registrations, weighted estimates, Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK
Dataset | Released on 4 December 2024

UK armed forces veterans and GP and dentist registrations, type of registrations and reason for not being registered by personal and service-related characteristics.

Wellbeing, weighted estimates, Veterans’ Survey 2022, UK
Dataset | Released on 4 December 2024

How often UK armed forces veterans felt lonely, and the average combined score on the loneliness scale by personal and service-related characteristics.

Veterans’ awareness and use of, and satisfaction with, health and well-being services, weighted estimates, Veterans’ Survey 2022
Dataset | Released on 4 December 2024

Estimates by personal and service-related characteristics from Op COURAGE, Veterans First Point, Veterans NHS Wales and Op RESTORE (Veterans Trauma Network).

Question 9

Glossary

Accepted Answer

Average combined score on the loneliness scale

The following three questions are from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) three-item loneliness scale:

“How often do you feel that you lack companionship?”
“How often do you feel left out?”
“How often do you feel isolated from others?”

Respondents that provided an answer (that was not “Prefer not to say”) to all three questions were given a score. Responses of “Hardly ever or never” were allocated a score of 1, “Some of the time” were allocated a score of 2 and “Often” were allocated a score of 3, the scores from the three questions were combined. The lowest possible combined score on the loneliness scale is 3 (indicating less frequent loneliness) and the highest is 9 (indicating more frequent loneliness). To compare the frequency of loneliness across personal and service-related characteristics, we have calculated an average combined score. Overall, the average combined score on the loneliness scale for veterans in our survey was 4.9.

Confidence intervals

Veterans’ Survey 2022 estimates are presented in our data with 95% confidence intervals. At the 95% confidence level, over many repeats of a survey under the same conditions, one would expect that the confidence interval would contain the true population value 95 times out of 100. Confidence intervals presented are based on complex standard errors (CSEs) around estimates, which reflect the design effects calculated for England and Wales Veterans’ Survey 2022 data, as outlined in Veterans’ Survey 2022 methodology.

Deployment

Respondents that were completing the survey on their own behalf (without assistance) were asked “During your service did you deploy on an Operational Deployment (named operations)?”

All respondents who said they were deployed on an Operational Deployment (named operation) were also asked: “Did you witness or take part in operations against enemy forces?”

Disability

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Economic activity status last week

Veterans aged 18 years and over were classified as “working” if they were economically active and in employment in the previous 7 days.

“Unemployed” refers to people who said they were out of work during the same period but were either looking for work, and could start within 2 weeks, or were waiting to start a job that had been offered and accepted.

“Economically inactive” refers to veterans aged 18 years and over who did not have a job in the previous 7 days, and who had not looked for work in the previous 4 weeks or could not start work within 2 weeks.

High-level ethnic group

The ethnic group that a person feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity, or physical appearance. High-level groups refer to initial ethnicity questions asked, where the respondent identifies through one of the following options:

“Asian “
“Black, Caribbean or African”
“Mixed or multiple”
“White”
“Other ethnic group”

Respondents to the Veteran’s Survey in Northern Ireland had differing and more detailed response options:

“White”
“Chinese”
“Irish Traveler”
“Roma”
“Indian”
“Filipino”
“Black African”
“Black Other”
“Mixed ethnic group”
“Any other ethnic group”

These were coded for the purposes of UK level analysis to correspond to the corresponding response option for England, Wales and Scotland.

Personalised care plan

The personalised care plan question asked of all respondents was: “Do you have complex and long-term healthcare needs that require a personalised care plan to support your health and wellbeing?”.

Respondents were informed that personalised care planning is essentially about addressing an individual’s full range of healthcare needs, treating the person “as a whole”, with a strong focus on helping people, together with their carers to achieve the outcomes they want for themselves.

Rank

A veteran-specific derived variable was created for rank. This derived variable was designed to differentiate between commissioned officer and non-officer ranks. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) worked with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) to group the list of ranks for each service type into these categories. There were a small number of responses that could not be coded appropriately, and these are excluded from our analysis for this publication.

Reason for leaving

All respondents were asked: “For what reason did you leave the UK Armed Forces?”. Response options were:

“By choice”
“End of contract or retirement”
“Made redundant”
“Medical discharge”
“Compulsory discharge”
“Prefer not to say”

UK armed forces veteran

This analysis defines veterans as people aged 18 years and over who have previously served in the UK armed forces. This includes those who have served for at least one day in the UK armed forces, either regular or reserves, or merchant mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations.

It does not include those who have left and since re-entered the regular or reserve UK armed forces, those who have only served in foreign armed forces, or those who have served in the UK armed forces and are currently living outside of the UK.

Question 10

Glossary: Qualitative themes

Accepted Answer

NHS

Within the theme of health, multiple sub-themes were included in the given responses. The NHS was often referred to in relation to access to services, (with some veterans saying there was a large time lapse between leaving the UK armed forces and succeeding in registering with an NHS dentist or doctor). Veterans also spoke about resorting to registering with an NHS service that was not very local to them owing to availability. The NHS was also discussed in terms of waiting times, lack of understanding or implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant and Duty of Due Regard (veterans felt their GPs and dentists were not aware of or recording their veteran status).

Question 11

Data sources and quality

Accepted Answer

Data

Veterans in this research have been identified using the Veterans’ Survey 2022 (for more information, see the ONS’s Veterans’ Survey methodology).

Quality

Weighting for England and Wales Veterans’ Survey, 2022

The age profile of veterans responding to the survey differed from the age profile of veterans identified in Census 2021, with survey respondents being younger than veterans from Census 2021. This may be because the survey was predominantly online or that marketing and promotion of the survey was more likely to reach younger veterans.

We used raking techniques to generate weights for England and Wales survey responses. This was based on the proportions of veterans we would expect to be within given age bands when we considered the age range of veterans from Census 2021. You can read more about this in the ONS’s Veterans’ Survey methodology.

Northern Ireland and Scotland, Veterans’ Survey 2022

There were no veteran population data available for Northern Ireland or Scotland that could reliably be used to assess the representativeness of responses to the Veterans’ Survey from people that lived in these countries. Veteran population data from the Scotland Census 2022 were not available at the time this survey data was processed and weighted.

Responses from Northern Ireland and Scotland remain unweighted. This principle was maintained even when a respondent gave a postcode that suggested they had an alternative address in England or Wales. However, assumptions are made about bias in respondent profiles from Northern Ireland or Scotland, based on biases we identified in the survey respondents’ profiles from England and Wales, as compared with data from Census 2021. This gives us a strong understanding of the veteran population in England and Wales.

We have also assumed additional uncertainty because of the sample design based on England and Wales data and included a design effect in the origin of complex standard errors for UK-level Veterans’ Survey, 2022 data. You can read more about this in the ONS’s Veterans’ Survey methodology.

Bias in sample profile, Veterans’ Survey 2022

Despite weighting the data to compensate for known biases in the Veterans’ Survey 2022, some biases remain as outlined in the ONS’s demographic overview and coverage analysis article. Awareness of these can be used to help interpretation of results and to guide future analysis.

Statistical disclosure control

To ensure statistical disclosure conditions are met in our UK analysis, we do not publish estimates for data based on fewer than 3 respondents.

We have not published country-level data for the Veterans’ Survey 2022, and instead described the general patterns found in our analysis in the ONS’s accompanying datasets. This is to avoid the feasibility of calculating (from overall response figures or from future planned analysis) respective counts of respondents within a given category, who stated they lived in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. There are a smaller number of respondents in these countries.

Qualitative analysis

Veterans were asked a more generic question about services and support: ‘Can you tell us what service and support would have been helpful for you that is currently lacking?’. This question asked for free text qualitative responses and respondents could have responded in relation to their needs at any stage of life, not just at the stage of transition.

To report on the themes within an interest group, we took all the veteran responses and removed blank responses to the question and responses that stated the respondent did not have an answer or did not know. The remaining veteran responses were then filtered to the interest group and the most prevalent themes within this interest group were discussed. Each response could be classified to multiple themes where applicable. Content analysis of these responses is unweighted.

Question 12

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Main points

About the Veterans’ Survey 2022