More than 2 million veterans now carry the Department of Veterans Affairs’ highest disability rating, a number that has more than doubled in just five years. The total climbed from 941,463 veterans rated 100% disabled in June 2021 to 2,090,059 by June 2026, an increase of roughly 122%, according to VA data.
That jump — an increase of 1,148,596 veterans over five years — was reported by OAF Nation, which analyzed official VA figures. The share of all veterans receiving disability compensation who hold a 100% rating also rose sharply, climbing from about 18% to nearly 32% over the same five-year span, per that analysis. Meanwhile, the overall pool of veterans receiving any VA disability compensation grew more modestly, from about 5.18 million in June 2021 to 6.57 million in June 2026 — an increase of roughly 27%.
A Wave of Upgrades, Not Just New Claims
Much of the surge didn’t come from brand-new applicants but from veterans already on the rolls getting bumped up to the maximum rating. In 2025 alone, 255,751 veterans who were already receiving compensation saw their ratings rise to 100%, according to Military.com’s review of budget records, as reported by the seed publisher MLive. Nearly half of those veterans, or 118,699, had previously been rated at 90% before their upgrade.
The pace of those 90%-to-100% upgrades has been climbing fast. It rose from 67,837 veterans in 2023 to 118,699 in 2025, a 75% increase over just two years, the outlet’s report notes. Upgrades to 100% overall followed the same trajectory, climbing from 158,698 in 2023 to 211,218 in 2024 and then to 255,751 in 2025. By the end of fiscal year 2025, 1,847,449 veterans receiving compensation held a 100% combined disability rating, and 717,882 veterans — 11.6% of everyone on the compensation rolls — received some kind of rating increase that year.
What's Driving the Numbers
The VA has pointed to several contributing factors, including the PACT Act, regulatory updates, a growing number of completed claims, and more issues being evaluated per claim. However, the published VA summary cited by OAF Nation does not break down how many of the additional 100% ratings resulted specifically from the PACT Act versus any other single factor — the data show correlation among several changes happening at once, not an isolated cause.
The average disability rating among all veterans receiving compensation also climbed, from 63.1% in 2024 to 65.6% in 2025, per the same Military.com account. Rising average degrees of disability translate directly into bigger average payments across the system, since compensation scales with rating level. Not every benefit category moved in lockstep, though — veterans receiving Individual Unemployability benefits, a separate designation, grew by just approximately 3% over the same five years, from 374,976 in June 2021 to 386,573 by June 2026.
What a 100% Rating Means, and What It Doesn't
The VA determines a veteran’s disability rating based on the severity of service-connected conditions, using it to set monthly compensation and eligibility for other benefits, according to the agency’s own guidance. When a veteran has multiple rated conditions, the VA combines them into a single overall rating. Importantly, OAF Nation’s report notes that a 100% VA disability rating does not necessarily mean a veteran is unable to work — it reflects the severity of service-connected impairment, not employment status.
The Honoring our PACT Act, which passed in August 2022, expanded the VA’s ability to establish presumptive service connections tied to toxic exposure, according to the bill’s text on file with Congress. That law has reshaped how certain claims are evaluated, though the dossier underlying this reporting does not quantify its individual share of the recent surge in 100% ratings. Open questions remain about exactly how much of the increase traces back to any single policy change versus the broader mix of factors the VA has cited.
