Conscription in Sweden

Between the 17th century and 1900, Sweden had an allotment system.

Mandatory military service for men was introduced in 1901. During the height of the Cold War, about 85% of Swedish men were conscripted.[1]

In 2010, the male-only system was replaced with a (theoretically gender-neutral) conscription system; at the same time conscription was mothballed.[2]

After seven years of deactivation, mandatory conscription was re-activated by the then Social democratic government, referencing increased threats to national security.[2]

The Swedish Armed Forces reportedly planned to call 4,000 recruits annually for basic military training in 2018 and 2019.[3] As the relevant age cohort was about 100,000, this meant that roughly 4% were to be enlisted.[4]

Beginning in 2018, over 4,000 conscripts were indeed called up.[2] 85% of those called up were men.[2] The conscripts were chosen from a pool of approximately 13,000 young people born in 1999 to serve for 12 months.[5]

In early 2019, after fines had been received by dozens of young people for draft evasion, the first jail sentences since the return of conscription were handed out to those refusing to carry out their military service.[6]

Conscientious objectors in Sweden have the right to choose alternative service (called vapenfri tjänst). After completing alternative service, the conscript then belongs to the civilian reserve.[7][8]

From 1983 to 2010, some conscripts had their service period extended to 450 days to allow for company command training. During the extended training, they held the rank of sergeants. After training, they were placed in the reserve as second lieutenants and assigned as platoon leaders or quartermasters in the TOE. Such "conscript officers" could not be promoted further unless they completed regular officer training at a military academy.