Population Benchmarking for the U.S. Department of the Air Force: Impact of Eligibility Requirements and Propensity to Serve on Demographic Representation

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berglund, Tiffany

Contributor:

Maerzluft, Christopher E.

Mariano, Louis T.

Language:

English

Other Title:

Population Benchmarking for the U.S. Department of the Air Force

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2023

Summary:

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) has prioritized growing and maintaining a diverse workforce across all pay grades. Because most positions are filled by promoting from within, having a diverse pool of candidates at the point of accession is critical to accomplishing the DAF's goal. However, a large segment of the U.S. population is not eligible to enlist as an airman or to be commissioned as an officer, and eligibility criteria affect women and racial and ethnic minority candidates differently than they affect White men. Understanding the population that meets the eligibility requirements to enlist in the military or to be admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) or the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) or Officer Training School (OTS) is crucial to determining the potential demographic makeup of DAF accessions and, ultimately, all DAF personnel. In this report, the authors create benchmarks for comparison with the DAF's accession cohorts by estimating the fraction of the eligible (and propensed) population, using ten mutually exclusive categories of gender and race and ethnicity. The benchmarks provide a measure of progress on diversity and inclusion in the force and a comparison to clearly identify whether a demographic's overrepresentation or underrepresentation can be attributed to specific eligibility standards or propensity to serve, or both.