Only 37% of Military Families Would Recommend Service to the Next Generation, New Survey Finds

Only 37% of active-duty family respondents said they’d recommend military service to a younger family member, according to Blue Star Families’ 2025 Military Family Lifestyle Survey. While that represents a modest increase from 32% in 2024, it remains well below the 55% reported in 2016.

The finding suggests fewer military families are willing to recommend military service than they were a decade ago, even as many of the quality-of-life concerns identified in previous surveys continue to appear in the data.

For active-duty service members and military spouses, those concerns are familiar. Military spouse employment, military pay, time away from family, housing affordability, childcare, and children’s education ranked among the most frequently cited challenges reported by active-duty families.

The Concerns Families Continue to Raise

Military spouse employment remained the top concern among active-duty family respondents. Fifty percent identified it as a concern, followed by military pay at 48% and time away from family at 39%.

Housing affordability, childcare availability, and children’s education each ranked at 33%.

Many of the same concerns identified in previous Military Family Lifestyle Surveys appeared again in 2025. For many military families, that’s often the frustration. The conversation changes. The concerns don’t.

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Military Spouse Employment Continues to Stand Out

Blue Star Families survey results reported that 23% of active-duty military spouses were unemployed in 2025.

Among military spouses who were employed, respondents identified licensing requirements, relocation-related disruptions, childcare costs, and employment interruptions associated with military moves as barriers affecting career continuity.

Securing employment after a PCS move and building a long-term career aren’t always the same thing. For military spouses who rebuild careers after every move, the impact isn’t limited to a missed paycheck. It can mean lost earnings, delayed promotions, interrupted retirement contributions, and professional opportunities that become harder to recover over time.

Military spouses often arrive at a new duty station ready to work, only to spend months navigating licensing transfers, childcare waitlists, or a local job market that doesn’t match their experience. Those realities rarely appear in relocation briefings, yet they often shape how real military families experience everyday life.

No issue appeared more frequently among active-duty family respondents than military spouse employment.

Financial Pressure Continues to Surface

38 percent of active-duty families reported they were either “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by.”

30 percent said they sometimes or often couldn’t afford balanced meals during the previous year. Military pay ranked as the second-highest concern among active-duty family respondents, continuing a struggle with military compensation and benefits, a significant part of military life, yet many respondents continue to report financial strain and affordability concerns.

Few military families describe financial pressure as a single crisis. More often, it arrives through rising costs, interrupted employment, unexpected expenses, and the cumulative effect of moving a household every few years.

Community Connection Improves Recommendation Rates

Families who reported a stronger sense of belonging within their communities were more likely to recommend military service than families who reported feeling disconnected or isolated. Respondents reporting stronger community belonging were also more likely to express satisfaction with military life overall.

The survey doesn’t establish why families reached their conclusions about whether they would or would not recommend military service. But it does show that concerns about employment, finances, housing, childcare, family time, and long-term stability continue to appear throughout the responses from military families.

Military leaders have spent years focused on recruiting and retention. The latest findings don’t provide a simple explanation for the decline in recommendation rates. They do, however, show that many military families continue to report challenges tied to employment, finances, housing, childcare, and family life. Those concerns remain visible throughout the data, even as fewer families say they’d recommend military service to the next generation.