OBJECTIVES: Patient characteristics and bleeding and recurrence risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) were assessed among patients in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) population. METHODS: Adult patients (≥18 years) with VTE (International Classification of Diseases, 9^th Revision, Clinical Modification codes: 451-453, 671.3, 671.4 and 671.9 deep vein thrombosis [DVT]; 415.1, 673.2, 673.8 pulmonary embolism [PE]) were identified from the VHA Medical SAS datasets. The index date was defined as the first VTE diagnosis date between 01APR2006 and 30SEP2012. Patients were required to have ≥2 outpatient VTE diagnosis claims within 3 weeks and one inpatient stay with a VTE diagnosis, continuous health plan enrollment for 6 months pre-index date and no VTE diagnosis (V12.51, V12.52) in the baseline period. Patient data were assessed until the earlier of death or end of the study period. Outcomes of interest included VTE recurrence, major bleeding and clinically-relevant non-major bleeding (CRNM). The incidence rate (per 100 person-year) was calculated for VTE recurrence and bleeding outcomes. RESULTS: Total 88,280 VTE patients were identified, of which 67.6% had DVT and 24.9% had PE. VTE patients were mean age 66 years, 95.9% were male and more often resided in the Southern U.S. region (37%). The baseline Charlson comorbidity index score was 3.3 and common comorbid conditions included hypertension (56.00%), respiratory disease (34.3%) and heart disease (34.3%). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (60.10%), antidepressants (33.00%) and anticoagulants (36.8%) were also frequently prescribed in the baseline period. During the follow-up period, 37.5% of VTE cases occurred in outpatient settings and 62.50% occurred in inpatient settings. The incidence rate for VTE recurrence (20.7%) was 10.5 per 100 person-years, major bleeding (21.9%) was 10.9 per 100 person-years and CRNM (23.00%) was 12.1 per 100 person-years.  CONCLUSIONS: U.S. veteran patients diagnosed with VTE had frequent comorbid conditions and were at high-risk for bleeding and VTE recurrence.