When Will The U.S. Lose Its Last WWII Veterans?

16 million Americans fought in the Second World War but today, their ranks are dwindling. U.S. men and women who fought in the conflict are now in their 90s (some are much older) with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reporting that approximately 325,000 remain alive today, a significant decline on the 939,000 alive in 2015. With an average of 245 dying every day (calculated by the VA before the COVID-19 outbreak), it raises a sad and depressing question: when will the U.S. lose the last of its WWII veterans?

The Department of Veterans Affairs uses a deterministic actuarial projection model to estimate and project the WWII veteran population up to 2045. Its findings have been visualized on the following infographic which shows how the number of living WWII vets will steadily decline over the coming years with the last one expected to pass away in 2043. That means that time is quickly running out to hear their stories about the war and to honor their sacrifice. The last American veteran of the First World War, Frank Buckles, passed away in February 2011 aged 110.