Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary marking the end of World War I.

By the Census Bureau

World War II veteran Johnnie Jones, Sr. poses for a portrait at his home in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Jones, who joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, was a warrant officer in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. He remembers wading ashore and one incident when he and his fellow soldiers came under fire from a German sniper. He grabbed his weapon and returned fire along with the other soldiers. It’s something that still haunts his memories. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Veterans salute during a Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall, to recognize the nation’s first African-American Marines who received basic training at Montford Point Camp, New River, N.C. from 1942 to 1949. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
World War II veteran Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon pauses while speaking about her past at her home, Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Tempe, Ariz. McClendon had a storied history as a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion that made history as being the only all-female, black unit to serve in Europe during World War II. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Navy sailor Hugston Brooks of Liberia hugs Navy U.S. citizenship manager Vicki Dronet Alba after a naturalization ceremony held aboard the decommssioned aircraft carrier USS Midway Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004, in San Diego. Eighty sailors and marines from 25 countries were granted citizenship in a cermony held to commemorate Veterans Day. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Wesley Brown, Jr., holds a class ring that belonged to his father, Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, the first African-American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy, after a memorial service in Annapolis, Md., Wednesday, June 6, 2012. Brown, whose family donated the ring to the Academy, was a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War before retiring from the Navy in 1969. Brown died last month of cancer. He was 85. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In this Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, photo, eleven Montford Point Marines listen to a video presentation before receiving their medals. in a ceremony in Detroit. Black Marine Corps veterans from Michigan who endured rigid segregation during World War II have received national recognition for their military service. The soldiers went through the all-African American Montford Point training camp in North Carolina before heading for duty in the war.(AP Photo/Detroit News, Todd McInturf)
World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks holds a photo of him taken in 1943, as he celebrates his 110th birthday at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. Brooks was born Sept. 12, 1909, and served in the predominantly African-American 91st Engineer Battalion, which was stationed in New Guinea and then the Philippines during World War II. He was a servant to three white officers in his battalion. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Melvain St. George, right, originally of Haiti, holds up his hand as he takes the oath of allegiance to the U.S. at a naturalization ceremony held aboard the decommssioned aircraft carrier USS Midway Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 in San Diego. Eighty sailors and marines from 25 countries were granted citizenship in a cermony held to commemorate Veterans Day. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
In this Sept. 12, 2019 photo, World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks holds a dog tag honoring him as the oldest living World War II veteran, as he celebrates his 110th birthday at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
World War II veteran Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon poses at her home, Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Tempe, Ariz. McClendon had a storied history as a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion that made history as being the only all-female, black unit to serve in Europe during World War II. (AP Photo/Matt York)
A member of the U.S. Marine Corps, who wants to remain anonymous, honors veterans graves at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Los Angeles, Monday, May 31, 2021. He has placed American flags for the past 15-years, first as a boy scout, this year as a U.S. Marine. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Vietnam Veteran Lanny Martinson holds his lost dog tag from Vietnam at the the VFW Post 4010 in Missouri City, Texas on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013. Martinson was a Platoon Sergeant in the Marines who lost his right leg after stepping on a land mine in Khe Sanh Vietnam in June 1968. Martinson’s dog tag was found by John Naismith from Australia sticking up out of the ground while taking a tour of the area two years ago. (AP Photo/The Courier, Alan Warren)
DeMarcus Gilliard, a veteran Marine captain, holds a series of photographs taken in May 2009 with then-President Barack Obama, in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Friday, April 23, 2021. Gilliard says he achieved a “triple whammy” that day, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, on his birthday, and meeting Obama. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
DeMarcus Gilliard, a veteran Marine captain, shows a pin with a U.S. and U.S. Marines flag that he often wears to remind him of his military service, in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Friday, April 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
In this Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, photo,Lt. Col. Lindell Holm, right, presents a medal to Sampson Davenport in a ceremony in Detroit. Black Marine Corps veterans from Michigan who endured rigid segregation during World War II have received national recognition for their military service. The soldiers went through the all-African American Montford Point training camp in North Carolina before heading for duty in the war.(AP Photo/Detroit News, Todd McInturf)
A veteran of the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only all-Black unit to land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Henry Parham died Sunday July 4, 2021 of bladder cancer. He was 99. Mr. Parham was likely the last surviving African American combat veteran of D-Day. Mr. Parham, of Wilkinsburg, Pa. joined 17 other American veterans at a ceremony at the French embassy in Washington, D.C., where the French government awarded them the Legion of Honor in 2013; the highest military decoration in France. (Nate Guidry/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
In this Jan. 17, 2012 photo, Carl Clark, 95, shows off the prestigious Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device, top in green, and the Purple Heart, in purple below, during a ceremony with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., for his heroism on May 3, 1945 when his ship, the USS Aaron Ward, was hit by six Kamikaze planes and two bombs during WWII. Clark, of California, who was denied a medal of honor for his heroism during World War II for more than six decades because he was black, has died at age 100. Clark’s daughter, Karen Clark Collins, said Tuesday, March 28, 2017, her father died March 16 at a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Menlo Park. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
World War II veteran Johnnie Jones, Sr. poses for a portrait at his home in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Jones, who joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, was a warrant officer in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. He remembers wading ashore and one incident when he and his fellow soldiers came under fire from a German sniper. He grabbed his weapon and returned fire along with the other soldiers. It’s something that still haunts his memories. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In this Jan. 11, 2018 photo, Army veteran William Dabney, who was part of the only African-American battalion that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944, poses in Roanoke, Va. Roughly 2,000 African American troops are believed to have hit the shores of Normandy in various capacities on June 6, 1944. Serving in the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a U.S. military still-segregated by race, they encountered discrimination both in the service and when they came home. (Erica Yoon/The Roanoke Times via AP)
In this May 7, 2019 photo, black female cadets with the Class of 2019 pose at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. The 34 women comprise a small slice of the roughly 1,000 cadets in the class. The cadets say they’re proud to be part of a milestone at the historic academy after four years of testing their limits. (Cadet Hallie H. Pound/U.S. Army via AP)
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama greets Marine Corps veteran Chris Lopez, 63, on Monday May 26, 2008 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, N.M. (AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Norm Dettlaff)
Master Sgt. Curtis Womack, of Clinton, Md., center, shakes hands with retired Brig. Gen. Leo A. Brooks, Jr., left, as retired Maj. Gen. Leo A. Brooks, Sr., stands at right, during a ceremony honoring African-American veterans, Friday, Feb. 23, 2007 in Washington. Womack is a re-enacter of a Buffalo Soldier and the Brooks family is the only African-American family with three generals in the family. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In an Aug. 30, 2012 photo, Karen Colonell helps her father Jonathan West stand to look over the crowd after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal for his service during WWII with the Montford Point Marines in Bend, Ore. West, a World War II veteran who was one of the first black Americans to serve in the Marines, died Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012 in Bend, Ore., according to his daughter, Robin Gail Sims. He was 91. (AP Photo/The Bulletin, Ryan Brennecke)
In this Jan. 17, 2012 photo, Carl Clark, 95, center with cane, is escorted to a stage during a special presentation ceremony with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, with the prestigious Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., for his heroism on May 3, 1945 when his ship, the USS Aaron Ward, was hit by six Kamikaze planes and two bombs during WWII. Clark was a Steward First Class and one of six black soldiers on board. Clark, from California, who was denied a medal of honor for his heroism during World War II for more than six decades because he was black, has died at age 100. Clark’s daughter, Karen Clark Collins, said Tuesday, March 28, 2017, her father died March 16, at a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Menlo Park. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
This June 5, 2017, photo shows World War II veteran Leonard Larkins at an event in Anchorage, Alaska, celebrating the 75th anniversary of construction of the Alaska Highway while someone holds an iconic photo of a black and white soldier shaking hands when the two sides building the road met in 1942. Larkins, of New Orleans, was among scores of segregated black soldiers who toiled in North America’s harshest weather and terrain to help build a 1,500-mile highway across Alaska and Canada as a supply route during World War II. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
James F. Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, greets Alfred Walker, 83, during Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall, to honor the nation’s first African-American Marines who received basic training at Montford Point Camp, New River, N.C. from 1942 to 1949. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
World War II veteran Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon shows images of herself during her time in the military, Thursday, June 10, 2021, at her home in Tempe, Ariz. McClendon had a storied history as a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion that made history as being the only all-female, black unit to serve in Europe during World War II. (AP Photo/Matt York)
West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams attends Parade Day at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., May 22, 2019. Williams became the academy’s first black superintendent last year. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Military personnel march in the annual Veteran’s Day parade in New York, Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Marine Corps veterans Jesse Torres and Leavie Davis salute as the Durham County Sheriff’s Office honor guard retrieves the colors at the close of a Veterans Day celebration, Friday, Nov. 11, 2016 at the Durham County Health and Human Services Building in Durham, N.C. (Kaitlin McKeown/The Herald-Sun via AP)
World War II veteran Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon shows an image of herself during her time in the military, at her home Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Tempe, Ariz. McClendon had a storied history as a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion that made history as being the only all-female, black unit to serve in Europe during World War II. (AP Photo/Matt York)
In this May 22, 2019 photo, senior cadet Stephanie Riley, of Jacksonville, Florida talks during an interview in West Point, N.Y. “I can show other little girls that yes, you can come to West Point,” said Riley. “Yes, you can do something that maybe the rest of your peers aren’t actually doing. And yes, you can be different from the rest of the group.” (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Congress passed a resolution in 1926 making it an annual observance, and it became a national holiday in 1938. Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day to honor all those who served the country in war or peace. On this day, the nation honors military veterans with parades and other observances across the country and a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The following facts are possible thanks to the invaluable responses to U.S. Census Bureau surveys:

The number of military veterans in the United States in 2019: 17.4 million
Source: 2019 American Community Survey

The number of female veterans in the United States in 2019: 1.6 million
Source: 2019 American Community Survey

The percentage of veterans in 2019 who were Black: 12.3%
Additionally, 76.2% were non-Hispanic White; 1.8% were Asian; 0.8% were American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.2% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and 1.4% were some other race.
Source: 2019 American Community Survey

The percentage of veterans in 2018 who were Hispanic: 7.2%
Source: 2019 American Community Survey

The percentage of veterans age 65 and older in 2019: 50.4%
At the other end of the age spectrum, 8.4% were younger than age 35.
Source: 2019 American Community Survey

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