The defense sector is expanding, and the need to recruit personnel is expected to increase in the coming years. Conscription forms the basis of the Swedish Armed Forces’ personnel supply, which makes the question of who is recruited into total defense particularly relevant.
Based on the Swedish Defence Research Agency reports “Who Wants to Do Military Service? Social Background and Attitudes Toward Conscription Among Swedish Youth” and “Who Gets to Defend Sweden? A Study on Social Bias in Conscription Recruitment” (both written in Swedish), Delmi is working on a new policy brief that will be published in the fall of 2026.
The studies are based on data from the Swedish Defence Conscription and Assessment Agency and Statistics Sweden and cover 476,623 Swedish citizens subject to total defense service who were born between 2000 and 2004. The policy brief analyzes the extent to which individuals from different social and demographic backgrounds undergo conscription screening and are accepted into military service, with a particular focus on individuals with a foreign background. The aim is to contribute knowledge about recruitment to military service and to highlight the factors that may influence the representativeness of Sweden’s total defense forces.
The author of the policy brief is Andreas Savelli.
Photo: Niamat Ullah via Unsplash.
