May 28, 2014 2:23PM 

# Number of VA Employees 

By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

[After my blogpost yesterday](https://www.cato.org/blog/veterans-affairs-federal-budget) about Department of Veterans Affairs spending, my research assistant Nick created the chart below on the number of VA employees. Wow, you don’t often see bureaucracies expand that rapidly! A 56 percent increase in just 13 years, from 219,000 to 341,000 employees. The VA has 100,000 new employees just since 2006.

The data is from [this OPM website](http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/employment.asp), which also provides a breakdown for agencies within departments. About 90 percent of VA employees are in the Veterans Health Administration, which is currently in the news for its [horrendous mismanagement](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/21/veterans-healthcare-scandal-shinseki-timeline/9373227/).

![Media Name: veterans-affairs-employees-000s.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/veterans-affairs-employees-000s.png?itok=sFTaSjKG) 

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).