The latest figures show 8,807 conscripts started military service in 2026.
These conscripts are made up of those born in 2007.
Since 2017 Sweden has a form of selective compulsory military service where only a fraction of those who are eligible to serve are actually trained.
That means year it was the turn of those who were born in 2008, who had by law to respond to a questionnaire about being called for military service.
While 111,674 teenagers have been sent that call-up, fewer than one-in-ten will probably be selected to start basic training.
How the system works
After answering questions about their suitability – including an ability test which you can try yourself at this link – they are then called to a muster (mönstring) and of those who muster, maybe around half will make it to basic training.
It is the the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency (Plikt- och prövningsverket) that is responsible for this system.
They published their statistics for 2026 on Friday the 16th October.
The Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency also says that of those who started basic military training in 2025 only eight per cent dropped out.
A changing system
Sweden has had military service for men since 1901, but this system was paused in 2009. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine Sweden eventually decided to re-activate military service, but for a select minority of those eligible.
This decision also made military service gender-neutral in Sweden.
The latest figures from the Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency show that only 16% of conscripts who started military training in 2026 were female.
Every January or February those who are about to turn 18 in Sweden are notified they must, by law, fill in the military service questionnaire within two weeks.
The questions are divided into five sections: health, physique, schooling, personality and attitude to military service.
In other words, the conscription agency aims to only recruit those who are both healthy and also motivated to carry out military service.
In March those who have filled in the questionnaire will find out of they are called to a muster.
Between May of that year and April the next year the conscripts visit mustering centres around Sweden, where they undergo further tests in-person.
These tests take two days and involve meeting both doctors and psychologists.
Those who pass muster are then called to military training, which starts in the next summer.
The basic military training for conscripts in Sweden takes between nine and 15 months.
Those who feel they have been missed out by the system can also independently apply for military service; in 2026 this made up almost 800 people.
Unarmed service available for pacifists
Something that is new this year is those selected for military service can also train in unarmed duties, or civil conscription (civilplikt).
Those who cannot by conscience use a weapon against another human being can apply to the conscription agency to be allowed to carry out this form of unarmed service.
Since the law on military service covers all those between 18 and 24 if a crisis or war was to strike Sweden then those who have been passed over for military training could yet be called up to serve.
Another form of compulsory service applies to all those who live in Sweden – citizens or not – who are aged between 16 and 70.
It allows the state to compel everyone to serve, in whatever way deemed suitable, in the event of a war.
Picture: a medical examination during mustering.
Credit: Kajsa Lorentzon/Pliktverket