Is it true that the majority of members in the military come from lower middle class/working class families?
October 28, 2025
Of course there are the exceptions, like members of the Kennedys or other political dynasties, but I've heard people from the USA say that "if you join the military, chances are, your family doesn't come from money".
45 comments
Yes.
Like in every other country in the world without mandatory service, yes.
The military is often seen as a way out of poverty for those born into lower classes. It provides education, job training, and job experience.
The majority of everyone (in USA) comes from lower middle class/working class families.
Yes, the US is far from unique in this regard.
I was in the Marines. Small sample size but I’m just going to tell you what I experienced.
Yes, most people joining the military are people that come from low and middle class families. But not always.
A lot of people join the military because they want their college paid for. Some people grew up in a small town and they want to travel. Some people are trying to learn a job skill.
A person who grows up very well wealthy, has their college paid for and doesn’t necessarily have to enter the workforce with a skill would have much less interest in joining the military.
For me personally, I grew up in an upper middle class family. I specifically joined the military because I wanted to travel the world. That was literally the only reason.
Yes. We have a de facto draft of the poor in the USA. That isn’t to say that people from more affluent families don’t join the military. But if they do, they’re more likely to do it through the ROTC.
In many, many places in the US, the military is the only chance to afford an education or get a chance at a decent job.
It depends.
I know lots of folks who enlisted to help escape poverty.
But, to be an officer, you need a college degree so that is more of a grab bag.
In a lot of cases yes, but middle class and occasionally upper middle class also join the military. I grew up solidly middle class and joined the military.
True, and I don’t see why that’s particularly surprising to you.
I don’t have statistics to prove or disprove this.
Anecdotally, a lot of us have known people who went into the service right out of high school because they didn’t want to do any more school and didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives. They felt there were few options available. Or they wanted support from the GI Bill to go to college later when their tour of duty was over. For many, it’s a last resort.
People with money typically have more options available. And those with money who want to enlist will typically get a college degree before enlisting so that they can be officers.
A lot of them. It’s an outstanding career path if you can’t or don’t want to go to college
No, the actual fact (not just what people think), is that the military disproportionately comes from middle class backgrounds (as how middle class is defined in the US).
People believe the myth that poor, desperate people join the military, but most recruits are from middle class backgrounds.
Members of the military are typically better educated and from a wealthier family than the ‘average’ person of equivalent education/background.
This is especially true of the combat-arms – as those who do join from working-class backgrounds tend to go into fields that teach you a trade (mechanics, truck drivers, etc), where as it’s the PlayStation/Call-of-Duty crowd that wants to be Infantry & play with guns….
Also, the leadership element is exclusively college-educated – so officers are all middle class plus… This is even more a-thing in the reserve component, because you can still have that 200k/yr job & be Army (Air Force, etc) one weekend-a-month/3-weeks-a-year…
Source: 20 years active/reserve service. Originally enlisted, now an artillery officer. Upper-middle-class techie…
In the Officers’ Corps, I’d say it’s the opposite, but generally enlisted were anywhere from middle class to poverty families.
It is, but not overwhelmingly so.
Service in the military gives you a lot of tools to reach a middle-class life, throuhgh programs like the GI Bill (education), VA home loan (exactly what it sounds like), the Thrift Savings Plan (a retirement account), a pension (if you retire), etc. Service members also have very little in terms of financial obligations unless they chose to take them on. If you’re okay with living in the barracks, eating at the chow hall, and driving a less flashy car, you can bank pretty much all of your income, especially on deployment. Free food, healthcare, and housing go a long way in making your meager base pay stretch quite far.
Yes, especially general infantry. Upper middle class people who are interested in the military are more likely to join the Air Force or something and pursue the elite groups like green berets, navy seals, etc.
And this has been shifting gradually over time. It was completely different a century ago.
I’m not sure if it’s a majority, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.
You can join at 17-18 years old and get
1. Steady pay check – most of the time
2.Housing
3.Health care
4.requires no prior skills
5.free college – with stipulations
6.travel
I know there’s more I just can’t think of it right now
It depends on the economy at the time. Recessions tend to draw in more people from the suburbs with some college, and recruiters can be picky and screen out the more applicants they see as more problematic (drug users, ex cons, lower test scores, etc.). In boom times when jobs are plentiful, it’s slim pickings for recruiters.
I was middle to upper middle class…90-07’
No. One of the girls father was an AF colonel.
Usually, yes. However, my grandfather who served in the Army (willingly enlisted) came from a “rich” background. “Rich” for the time as in he had running water, was able to pay for sports, and his family owned a successful business that was kept afloat during the Great Depression.
80% of the US military comes from working class and middle class families.
Unless something else is compelling you to serve, I would think that rich kids would see better opportunities elsewhere. Potentially putting your life on the line for a low salary isn’t too compelling unless you don’t have better options or you have a hero complex.
Well most sane people don’t risk their lives for free. I remember in school they always had a table set up talking about how much money you could make and the sign on bonuses.
Of course the people I knew blew their money like total assholes and then ended up living on state benefits to survive.
I don’t know about for the majority, but it’s certainly common.
One of the key factors is that 4 years of service in the military gets you the G.I. Bill, which will pay for 4 years of any public university, along with giving you a housing/food stipend.
So for someone who can’t even afford college, that’s a fantastic trade. Work for 4 years with minimal expenses, then go to school for 4 years on the government’s dime.
Yes, but more context here needed.
In the military there are enlisted ranks (+NCO) which consist of people starting from the bottom (private). However, they can only rise up to certain rank (NCOs) and are always superseded in rank by the officer class. The enlisted ranks form the vast majority of the military and mostly come from lower middle class/working class families.
The officer rank consists of people that actually goes to formal military academies (either through the service academies or ROTC) and instantly outrank the enlisted ranks above. These people can go all the way to the top (Chief of Staff) and since the rigor of these schools rivals many elite universities (in order to get into West Point, one needs stellar GPA/SAT, be super fit and get nominated by a member of Congress), this group then to be very upper middle class. The Kennedys and the McCains are here.
In which country is this not the case? Aside from the two-year mandatory conscription in some countries.
A lot of people who come from lower income families see the military as a way to break the cycle. Many go to college afterwards and do very well in their lives. My father in law was one of these people.
For what it’s worth, one of my closest friend from HS joined the marines right after graduation, good friend and all, but dumb as a box of rocks, like barely a “D” student in public HS. After boot he would say regularly that he’s never felt so smart as when he was in boot, that a good amount of people he was in there with were world class stupid, like didn’t know how to fill out basic forms because they couldn’t, or could just barely read/write.
So yeah, I would venture that a significant portion of them come from the bottom 50% of the wealth ladder.
Former enlisted army here,
In my time I knew 2 enlisted that had money!
1 his father required military service to unlock his trust fund and didn’t care and let everyone know about it.
1 was a legit African prince, who nobody knew about until I was called into tops office about why was one of my people needed to pick up a diplomatic pouch from his office. Nobody knew about him, he was an E3 at that time.
Data from The Counsel on Foreign Relations in 2020 suggest the three middle income quintiles are overrepresented among the enlisted ranks, all at similar levels. The top and bottom quintiles are underrepresented. A fair characterization would be the enlisted corps cuts across the middle class, but has relatively fewer soldiers who grew up wealthy or poor.
The report doesn’t comment on officers, but I’d assume it skews wealthier given the requirement of a college degree.
Definitely true. I was a medic. My parents were factory workers but also homeowners in the 70s. The officers I worked with were nurses and doctors. Half seemed to come from middle class. The other half, mostly doctors, came from more money. They were doing military for the experience.
All my friends who joined the army/navy out of high school were working class like me. A few came from horrible home life situations and took it as a way out. I didn’t know anyone middle class who joined. I can’t imagine much has changed, especially after the Iraq War.
Not true. I came from poverty. I wish I grew up in the lower middle class.
Yes. US military class demographics roughly mirror US class demographics, and the majority of working age Americans are lower+middle class.
Most of the population at large fits that description so it’s not necessarily statistically significant without comparing it to general population.
I knew a few enlisted guys who were from fairly wealthy families. Off the top of my head, one’s parents were psychiatrists, and one’s family owned a nail care company.
But I was in the Navy’s nuclear field, and things were a bit different for us. Most of us were like me. I dropped out of college and joined as a Navy nuc because they offered us a good deal (E-3 in boot camp, E-4 after you finish your class A school a few months later, and the best re-enlistment package the military had to offer).
Off the top of my head, one’s parents of my friends was the son of two psychiatrists, and another’s family owned a nail care company. (He was being groomed to take over the company, but went wild in college. His father told him “You will either continue college MY way, or you will join the Navy!” He was rather surprised that his son chose option 2. Last I heard, my friend’s father had died. My friend got out of the Navy on a hardship discharge and took over running the company).
Enlisted, yeah. Its a good way to escape a bad situation
I came from a upper middle class to lower upper class area and no one wanted to join the military, occasionally a few people wanted to go to West Point and maybe someone talked about the Air Force as a way to fly planes but they would just go to a school like embry riddle instead. We had such low interest that I didn’t even realize until quite recently that the military would recruit on high school campuses or have recruitment centers in towns.
I’m a former US Marine, and I can say that people from all economic classes join. Poor, middle class, and rich.
There are many reasons why people join the military. My nephew was far from lower class, but his father fought in Vietnam, so he joined the military after 9/11 out of respect for his father who had no choice. My husband joined the Air Force after he received his citizenship as a way to express his love for his new country. Although he was an immigrant, his parents were far from poor and lived in a large house in an upper middle-class neighborhood. A close family passed his bar exam in September 2001, he had zero student debt but joined because he wanted a military career. His parents were so mad, but he was able to retire with 20 years service, and now works in the private sector. Once again, his father served.
With that said, yes, many people who have suffered socio-economic hardships, can find a place in the military. Regardless of someone’s political opinions, the military is how our VP found his way out of a cycle of generational poverty and substance abuse. The military provides an income, a place to live, structure, and a path to higher education.
As someone who enlisted from an upper middle class family. I would say this is true. Early on, I got a lot of why are you here, you have so many opportunities. Yea but mom and dad were rich, I wasn’t.
No, it’s not true. People believe it to be so, but the majority of the US military comes from the middle-income quartiles. [https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military)
Generally true, but I know a guy who was set to inherit millions and he still enlisted and was in for 8 years. He’s retired now on his ranch he inherited that’s 2k+ acres. People from all walks of life join
I joined the USAF in 2012 and 3/4 of my BMT flight had a bachelor’s degree.
It was very difficult to join at that time, recruiters could be picky. Guys graduated College and spent a year looking for jobs with their new degrees and couldn’t get one, so they joined the military. I’m sure it was different for other branches.
45 comments
Yes.
Like in every other country in the world without mandatory service, yes.
The military is often seen as a way out of poverty for those born into lower classes. It provides education, job training, and job experience.
The majority of everyone (in USA) comes from lower middle class/working class families.
Yes, the US is far from unique in this regard.
I was in the Marines. Small sample size but I’m just going to tell you what I experienced.
Yes, most people joining the military are people that come from low and middle class families. But not always.
A lot of people join the military because they want their college paid for. Some people grew up in a small town and they want to travel. Some people are trying to learn a job skill.
A person who grows up very well wealthy, has their college paid for and doesn’t necessarily have to enter the workforce with a skill would have much less interest in joining the military.
For me personally, I grew up in an upper middle class family. I specifically joined the military because I wanted to travel the world. That was literally the only reason.
Yes. We have a de facto draft of the poor in the USA. That isn’t to say that people from more affluent families don’t join the military. But if they do, they’re more likely to do it through the ROTC.
In many, many places in the US, the military is the only chance to afford an education or get a chance at a decent job.
It depends.
I know lots of folks who enlisted to help escape poverty.
But, to be an officer, you need a college degree so that is more of a grab bag.
In a lot of cases yes, but middle class and occasionally upper middle class also join the military. I grew up solidly middle class and joined the military.
True, and I don’t see why that’s particularly surprising to you.
I don’t have statistics to prove or disprove this.
Anecdotally, a lot of us have known people who went into the service right out of high school because they didn’t want to do any more school and didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives. They felt there were few options available. Or they wanted support from the GI Bill to go to college later when their tour of duty was over. For many, it’s a last resort.
People with money typically have more options available. And those with money who want to enlist will typically get a college degree before enlisting so that they can be officers.
A lot of them. It’s an outstanding career path if you can’t or don’t want to go to college
No, the actual fact (not just what people think), is that the military disproportionately comes from middle class backgrounds (as how middle class is defined in the US).
People believe the myth that poor, desperate people join the military, but most recruits are from middle class backgrounds.
[https://www.afba.com/military-life/new-research-debunks-myths-about-who-enlists-and-why/](https://www.afba.com/military-life/new-research-debunks-myths-about-who-enlists-and-why/)
No.
Members of the military are typically better educated and from a wealthier family than the ‘average’ person of equivalent education/background.
This is especially true of the combat-arms – as those who do join from working-class backgrounds tend to go into fields that teach you a trade (mechanics, truck drivers, etc), where as it’s the PlayStation/Call-of-Duty crowd that wants to be Infantry & play with guns….
Also, the leadership element is exclusively college-educated – so officers are all middle class plus… This is even more a-thing in the reserve component, because you can still have that 200k/yr job & be Army (Air Force, etc) one weekend-a-month/3-weeks-a-year…
Source: 20 years active/reserve service. Originally enlisted, now an artillery officer. Upper-middle-class techie…
In the Officers’ Corps, I’d say it’s the opposite, but generally enlisted were anywhere from middle class to poverty families.
It is, but not overwhelmingly so.
Service in the military gives you a lot of tools to reach a middle-class life, throuhgh programs like the GI Bill (education), VA home loan (exactly what it sounds like), the Thrift Savings Plan (a retirement account), a pension (if you retire), etc. Service members also have very little in terms of financial obligations unless they chose to take them on. If you’re okay with living in the barracks, eating at the chow hall, and driving a less flashy car, you can bank pretty much all of your income, especially on deployment. Free food, healthcare, and housing go a long way in making your meager base pay stretch quite far.
Yes, especially general infantry. Upper middle class people who are interested in the military are more likely to join the Air Force or something and pursue the elite groups like green berets, navy seals, etc.
And this has been shifting gradually over time. It was completely different a century ago.
I’m not sure if it’s a majority, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.
You can join at 17-18 years old and get
1. Steady pay check – most of the time
2.Housing
3.Health care
4.requires no prior skills
5.free college – with stipulations
6.travel
I know there’s more I just can’t think of it right now
It depends on the economy at the time. Recessions tend to draw in more people from the suburbs with some college, and recruiters can be picky and screen out the more applicants they see as more problematic (drug users, ex cons, lower test scores, etc.). In boom times when jobs are plentiful, it’s slim pickings for recruiters.
I was middle to upper middle class…90-07’
No. One of the girls father was an AF colonel.
Usually, yes. However, my grandfather who served in the Army (willingly enlisted) came from a “rich” background. “Rich” for the time as in he had running water, was able to pay for sports, and his family owned a successful business that was kept afloat during the Great Depression.
80% of the US military comes from working class and middle class families.
Unless something else is compelling you to serve, I would think that rich kids would see better opportunities elsewhere. Potentially putting your life on the line for a low salary isn’t too compelling unless you don’t have better options or you have a hero complex.
Well most sane people don’t risk their lives for free. I remember in school they always had a table set up talking about how much money you could make and the sign on bonuses.
Of course the people I knew blew their money like total assholes and then ended up living on state benefits to survive.
I don’t know about for the majority, but it’s certainly common.
One of the key factors is that 4 years of service in the military gets you the G.I. Bill, which will pay for 4 years of any public university, along with giving you a housing/food stipend.
So for someone who can’t even afford college, that’s a fantastic trade. Work for 4 years with minimal expenses, then go to school for 4 years on the government’s dime.
Yes, but more context here needed.
In the military there are enlisted ranks (+NCO) which consist of people starting from the bottom (private). However, they can only rise up to certain rank (NCOs) and are always superseded in rank by the officer class. The enlisted ranks form the vast majority of the military and mostly come from lower middle class/working class families.
The officer rank consists of people that actually goes to formal military academies (either through the service academies or ROTC) and instantly outrank the enlisted ranks above. These people can go all the way to the top (Chief of Staff) and since the rigor of these schools rivals many elite universities (in order to get into West Point, one needs stellar GPA/SAT, be super fit and get nominated by a member of Congress), this group then to be very upper middle class. The Kennedys and the McCains are here.
In which country is this not the case? Aside from the two-year mandatory conscription in some countries.
A lot of people who come from lower income families see the military as a way to break the cycle. Many go to college afterwards and do very well in their lives. My father in law was one of these people.
For what it’s worth, one of my closest friend from HS joined the marines right after graduation, good friend and all, but dumb as a box of rocks, like barely a “D” student in public HS. After boot he would say regularly that he’s never felt so smart as when he was in boot, that a good amount of people he was in there with were world class stupid, like didn’t know how to fill out basic forms because they couldn’t, or could just barely read/write.
So yeah, I would venture that a significant portion of them come from the bottom 50% of the wealth ladder.
Former enlisted army here,
In my time I knew 2 enlisted that had money!
1 his father required military service to unlock his trust fund and didn’t care and let everyone know about it.
1 was a legit African prince, who nobody knew about until I was called into tops office about why was one of my people needed to pick up a diplomatic pouch from his office. Nobody knew about him, he was an E3 at that time.
Data from The Counsel on Foreign Relations in 2020 suggest the three middle income quintiles are overrepresented among the enlisted ranks, all at similar levels. The top and bottom quintiles are underrepresented. A fair characterization would be the enlisted corps cuts across the middle class, but has relatively fewer soldiers who grew up wealthy or poor.
The report doesn’t comment on officers, but I’d assume it skews wealthier given the requirement of a college degree.
[https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military)
Definitely true. I was a medic. My parents were factory workers but also homeowners in the 70s. The officers I worked with were nurses and doctors. Half seemed to come from middle class. The other half, mostly doctors, came from more money. They were doing military for the experience.
All my friends who joined the army/navy out of high school were working class like me. A few came from horrible home life situations and took it as a way out. I didn’t know anyone middle class who joined. I can’t imagine much has changed, especially after the Iraq War.
Not true. I came from poverty. I wish I grew up in the lower middle class.
Yes. US military class demographics roughly mirror US class demographics, and the majority of working age Americans are lower+middle class.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/536912/military-demographics-representative-america-officials-say
Most of the population at large fits that description so it’s not necessarily statistically significant without comparing it to general population.
I knew a few enlisted guys who were from fairly wealthy families. Off the top of my head, one’s parents were psychiatrists, and one’s family owned a nail care company.
But I was in the Navy’s nuclear field, and things were a bit different for us. Most of us were like me. I dropped out of college and joined as a Navy nuc because they offered us a good deal (E-3 in boot camp, E-4 after you finish your class A school a few months later, and the best re-enlistment package the military had to offer).
Off the top of my head, one’s parents of my friends was the son of two psychiatrists, and another’s family owned a nail care company. (He was being groomed to take over the company, but went wild in college. His father told him “You will either continue college MY way, or you will join the Navy!” He was rather surprised that his son chose option 2. Last I heard, my friend’s father had died. My friend got out of the Navy on a hardship discharge and took over running the company).
Enlisted, yeah. Its a good way to escape a bad situation
I came from a upper middle class to lower upper class area and no one wanted to join the military, occasionally a few people wanted to go to West Point and maybe someone talked about the Air Force as a way to fly planes but they would just go to a school like embry riddle instead. We had such low interest that I didn’t even realize until quite recently that the military would recruit on high school campuses or have recruitment centers in towns.
I’m a former US Marine, and I can say that people from all economic classes join. Poor, middle class, and rich.
There are many reasons why people join the military. My nephew was far from lower class, but his father fought in Vietnam, so he joined the military after 9/11 out of respect for his father who had no choice. My husband joined the Air Force after he received his citizenship as a way to express his love for his new country. Although he was an immigrant, his parents were far from poor and lived in a large house in an upper middle-class neighborhood. A close family passed his bar exam in September 2001, he had zero student debt but joined because he wanted a military career. His parents were so mad, but he was able to retire with 20 years service, and now works in the private sector. Once again, his father served.
With that said, yes, many people who have suffered socio-economic hardships, can find a place in the military. Regardless of someone’s political opinions, the military is how our VP found his way out of a cycle of generational poverty and substance abuse. The military provides an income, a place to live, structure, and a path to higher education.
As someone who enlisted from an upper middle class family. I would say this is true. Early on, I got a lot of why are you here, you have so many opportunities. Yea but mom and dad were rich, I wasn’t.
No, it’s not true. People believe it to be so, but the majority of the US military comes from the middle-income quartiles. [https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military)
Generally true, but I know a guy who was set to inherit millions and he still enlisted and was in for 8 years. He’s retired now on his ranch he inherited that’s 2k+ acres. People from all walks of life join
I joined the USAF in 2012 and 3/4 of my BMT flight had a bachelor’s degree.
It was very difficult to join at that time, recruiters could be picky. Guys graduated College and spent a year looking for jobs with their new degrees and couldn’t get one, so they joined the military. I’m sure it was different for other branches.