Army Sees 6 Percent Drop in White Recruits

The Army saw a 6% decline in white recruits from 2022 to 2023, the steepest drop of a gradual decrease since 2018, Military.com reported.

The 6% drop year-over-year resulted in a low of 25,070 white recruits in 2023, down from the 44,042 new white recruits in 2018, according to the report.

The decline is responsible for the overall shortfall of 10,000 recruits in 2023 as the Army fell short of its target of 65,000 new soldiers, according to the report. The Army declined to provide a geographic breakdown of which parts of the country saw the biggest drop and also splits as to whether the biggest shortfall came from white men or white women.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Black and Hispanic recruits rose from 2018 to 2023:

• Black recruits went from 20% to 24%.
• Hispanic recruits went from 17% to 24%.
• White recruits went from 56.4% to 44%.

One potential explanation for the drop is the awareness in conservative-leaning parts of the country of a military growing increasingly "woke" in the Biden administration. Congressional lawmakers have taken aim at the Pentagon for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that they say have changed the focus from military readiness to progressive policies of the administration.

"No, the young applicants don't care about this stuff. But the older people in their life do who have a lot of influence ... parents, coaches, pastors," an Army official told Military.com. "There's a level of prestige in parts of conservative America with service that has degraded.

"Now, you can say you don't want to join, for whatever reason, or bad-mouth the service without any cultural guilt associated for the first time in those areas."

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