Rural military participation overstated, but higher than urban

The White House is reporting rural residents, which represent 17 percent of the population, provide 44 percent of military personnel. Bill Bishop, editor of the Daily Yonder says this number is vastly overstated. "Rural communities are providing far more of their young to military service than the cities," Bishop writes. "But the percentage of rural residents in the military is still much less than half of what Vilsack and the White House and the White House Rural Council assert."

The White House appears to have grouped numbers from two different sources together despite any obvious relationship, Bishop reports. The 17 percent rural population figure is from the U.S. Census Bureau, and it appears the 44 percent is from a 2005 Washington Post story. (Read more)

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich admits the 44 percent is from the Washington Post story, but would not would not explain why the White House continues to use the statistic without verifying it with the Defense Department, Howard Berkes of NPR reports.

Suggesting the overstated number is inconsequential, Lehrich told Berkes, "Regardless of how you do the math, the point we were making is clear and important: Rural Americans are serving at a disproportionate rate and are an integral part of our military." (Read more)