The VA data your grant writer can’t find — because it doesn’t exist

A Colorado county veteran service officer needed what sounded like a straightforward number:

How many veterans in Archuleta County are enrolled in VA health care?

It is the kind of question grant writers encounter every day. The answer could help document local demand, justify additional services and strengthen a funding request.

It is also a number the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs no longer publishes at the county level.

That does not mean the question should go unanswered. It means the answer needs context, careful language and an honest explanation of what the available data can — and cannot — tell us.

What Dorothy found

When asked about VA health-care enrollment in Archuleta County, Dorothy located the most recent county-level figure available from the VA:

588 Archuleta County veterans were enrolled in VA health care in fiscal year 2015.

That is a valid federal data point. It is also more than a decade old.

A conventional search might produce the number without making its age immediately apparent. A rushed grant application might even present it as current. Either approach could leave reviewers with a misleading picture of the county’s veteran population and health-care needs.

Dorothy handles the gap differently:

• Report the FY2015 enrollment count of 588.
• Clearly identify it as the latest published county-level VA enrollment figure.
• Explain that VA has not published a newer county-level enrollment count.
• Add a more recent national benchmark for context.
• Offer a transparent estimate only when it helps — and label it as an estimate.

The result is not a magically current number. It is a defensible answer.

The difference between finding data and inventing certainty

The VA continues to publish extensive information through its National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics and Open Data Portal. Its Colorado summaries include county veteran-population information and statewide health-care and benefits measures, but the public sources reviewed do not provide a current county-level VA health-care enrollment count for Archuleta County.

This is a common problem in grant research. Data may exist for:

• The right population but the wrong year
• The right year but the wrong geography
• A related measure that is not equivalent to the requested measure
• A national or state benchmark that cannot be directly treated as a local count

The temptation is to bridge those gaps quietly. A statewide percentage gets applied to a county. A health-care utilization figure becomes an enrollment figure. An old count loses its date somewhere between the research notes and the final narrative.

Each step can make the answer look more complete while making it less accurate.

What a current benchmark can tell us

Nationally, 32.9% of veterans used VA health care in FY2021, or approximately one in three veterans.

That rate measures utilization—not enrollment. A veteran may be enrolled in VA health care without using it during a particular year, so the national utilization percentage cannot be used to recreate a county enrollment count.

It can, however, provide useful context.

The Census Bureau estimates that Archuleta County had 1,169 veterans during the 2020–2024 survey period. The figure carries a margin of error because it comes from the American Community Survey rather than a complete population count.

Applying the FY2021 national utilization rate to that estimate produces:

1,169 veterans × 32.9% = approximately 385 veterans

That calculation supports a carefully worded statement:

Based on the Census Bureau’s estimate of the county’s veteran population and the FY2021 national VA health-care utilization rate, approximately 385 Archuleta County veterans might use VA health care. This is a planning estimate, not an official county enrollment or utilization count.

It does not support saying that 385 county veterans are currently enrolled.

That single distinction can determine whether a grant narrative is transparent or misleading.

A stronger way to write the need statement

A defensible grant narrative might read:

Archuleta County had 588 veterans enrolled in VA health care in FY2015, the most recent county-level enrollment figure publicly available from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Census Bureau estimates that 1,169 veterans lived in the county during the 2020–2024 survey period. If local utilization resembled the FY2021 national rate of 32.9%, roughly 385 county veterans may have used VA health care. That figure is an estimate for planning purposes and should not be interpreted as a current VA enrollment count.

This version gives the grant reviewer three things:

• A verified historical baseline. The 588 figure comes from the VA and is tied to a specific fiscal year.
• Current community context. The Census estimate provides a more recent picture of the county’s veteran population.
• A transparent planning estimate. The calculation is visible, reproducible and appropriately limited.

Just as importantly, it tells the reviewer what remains unknown.

Missing data is part of the story

Data gaps are not merely research inconveniences. They shape which communities can demonstrate need.

For rural counties, the absence of current local data can make it harder to document health-care demand, transportation barriers, staffing needs and service gaps. Large jurisdictions may have the staff or funding to conduct their own assessments. Smaller communities are more likely to depend on federal datasets that may be outdated, geographically broad or no longer maintained.

A missing county-level number can therefore become a funding disadvantage.

Grant writers should not have to choose between submitting an incomplete application and presenting an estimate as fact. They need tools that preserve the evidence trail: where a number came from, what year it represents, how an estimate was calculated and which questions the available data cannot answer.

The Data Love perspective

Good data work is not about filling every blank.

It is about knowing which blanks can be responsibly estimated, which require additional research and which must remain visibly blank until better data becomes available.

Dorothy does not manufacture precision where public agencies have stopped providing it. She finds the strongest available evidence, separates counts from estimates and gives grant writers language they can defend.

Because sometimes the most valuable answer is not, “Here is the number.”

It is, “Here is what we know, here is what we can reasonably estimate—and here is what the data does not allow us to claim.”

Ask Dorothy: How many veterans in Archuleta County are enrolled in VA health care?

Explore more data-informed grant strategies from Data Love Co. and see how Dorothy helps turn scattered public information into transparent, fundable evidence.