Thank you, Rob.
Through the client list here, I do have specific numbers for you, and we can break them down. We have 219,000 clients. That's including the RCMP disability pension awards. We have 176,000 disability pension awards. About another 8,000 would be the RCMP's share of that caseload, if you will. As well, 103,000 survivors receive the VIP program. So that's a snapshot of our veterans population.
With regard to the average age of a new force veteran coming into the system, I always say it's the age of 34, but it could be 36. The average age of a World War II veteran now is up to 85, soon to be 86. Of course, that was one of the reasons we redesigned some of our programs when we went to the new Veterans Charter, which was introduced by the Liberal government, passed by the previous government, and implemented by ours. That's one of the reasons we moved to that.
In terms of the programs offered, Rob, it's wide and it's varied. Again, I do know that a lot of the emphasis on the new veterans coming into the system very much is on the post-traumatic stress disorder. Those numbers really have escalated in the last number of years. I think Veterans Affairs has responded well to it. We do have a lot of those peer support groups around the country where our veterans can get in and share thoughts, and families can get together.
A lot of that goes on both on and off the bases. Many of our clinics are walk-in. The stigma of walking into a doctor's office or a psychiatrist's office doesn't exist, because they're off-base and many of them are housed in the most unusual places. We're making every effort we can so that when a veteran is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they can receive that type of treatment in the kind of privacy that they deserve, and eliminate the kind of difficulties that often have been created in the past as a result of receiving that treatment.
I often say that in our society as a whole, anyone who suffers from mental illness suffers in silence. I think we've made great gains, and DND has as well, in bringing the reality out in the public eye. It's more accepted now than it was in the past. People actually seek treatment. There's more of a recognition by the government that we can do more, and we will continue to do more and closely monitor what's going on.
When you compare the numbers in some of the other jurisdictions around the world with the numbers in Canada, you can see that we are blessed with a pretty healthy group of men and women in uniform. I do know that we were talking earlier today about suicide rates in the U.S. military. It's an extremely high number, a frighteningly high number. Our number in the Canadian military, from the statistics that I've received anyway, indicates that suicide within the Canadian military, in the veterans group as a whole--that larger military family, I might say, as a better way of putting it--is actually less than the Canadian average.
I think this is as a result of a number of things that we're doing, and just the quality of the men and women who put on the Canadian uniform. I'd like to believe that some of it is the ongoing work that Veterans Affairs has done with our client base, not to mention National Defence itself.