Conscription status · as of 2026
The status of conscription: compulsory, selective — by lottery or quota —, abolished or suspended, or countries with no army at all.
A synthesis of open sources and national legislation, as of 2026. "Suspended" and "abolished" are grouped: legally distinct, they produce the same effect, and Germany is a reminder that a suspension can be reversed.
Conscription has been returning to Europe since 2014, not out of nostalgia but out of arithmetic: a professional army is excellent and small, and it cannot sustain a war of attrition.
Sweden reinstated conscription in 2017, Lithuania in 2015, Latvia in 2024. Costa Rica has had no army since 1948, and Iceland has never had one.