Statistics Fact Sheet – The USO Then and Now
· During World War II, there were more than 16 million active-duty service members.
· Today, there are nearly 1.4 million active-duty service members.
· In 1944, at the peak of USO activity during World War II, there were 3,035 USO operations worldwide, with 173 overseas centers.
· Today, there are 115 USO Centers around the world, with 64 located in the continental United States and in U.S. Territories.
· In 1944, attendance at USO Centers worldwide was nearly 20 million.
· USO Centers today receive nearly 5 million visits from service members and their families each year.
· From 1941 to 1947, the USO presented 428,521 performances, with a total attendance of more than 212 million.
· In 1999, the USO sent 40 Celebrity Entertainment tours to 38 countries, providing a “Touch of Home” for more than 130,000 troops.
· During World War II, there were 1.5 million volunteers at USO Centers worldwide, contributing more than 152 million hours of service.
· Today, over 12,000 members in the USO international corps of volunteers provide an estimated 450,000 hours of service annually, a worldwide contribution of over $3 million.
· In 1944, the USO raised more than $236 million to provide morale-boosting services for the men and women of the Armed Forces. Adjusting for inflation, this figure would be equivalent to $2.2 billion today.
· In 1999, the USO delivered more than $15 million in services for the troops, using money contributed by individuals, organizations, and corporate donors such as AT&T, USAA, Nicorette/NicoDerm CQ, Yahoo!, Coca-Cola, and Northwest Airlines.
· During World War II, the most-utilized USO services included dances, letter-writing facilities, snack bars, radios and record players, libraries, showers, and sleeping facilities.
· Today, service members and their families continue to enjoy many of these same services, with cyber-canteens and phone cards replacing letter-writing facilities, CD players and big-screen TV’s replacing radios and record players. USO Centers today also provide cultural orientation, travel assistance, language classes, health and fitness programs, and nursery facilities.
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