Is military service required in Sweden?

Question

Wikipedia says it is, but a Swede [male; 26] told me it wasn't. Is it?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

For women it isn't, but they can choose to apply if they wish to.

Men will get a letter in the mail to do an assessment online the year they turn 17. They have to complete this.

The ones that the military thinks are most suited for the army are then chosen to do what we in Sweden call a "mönstring" - another type of assessment. They test your physics, psychics and health. These tests are done the year you turn 18.

Between 5000-10000 are then handed a notice to report for duty.

It is against the law to refuse to join.

Most swedes who don't want to do military service just intentionally fail all the assessments and achieve worse results than they could have.

Answer 2

When I was in Sweden some years ago, it was but it's not like they send you to war.  Many European countries do this.  They draft their young men at a certain age, send them to boot camp and often it's only 7-9 months they are in the army.  In Sweden and many other countries it's also fairly easy to get out of.  One option is as a pacifist you may choose to do something else instead of the military, say work in a hospital.  Another option is to get your GP to say you have some medical problem preventing you from serving.

They have a brochure about it at http://www.pliktverket.se/cgibin/publica... and it looks to me like they require their young men to answer questions over the internet to decide who they will enlist and who they wont.