Every male Austrian citizen becomes liable for military conscription on his 17th birthday. The enlistment takes place in the calendar year in which his 18th birthday is reached (main enlistment year). However, it is also possible to undergo a military examination in the year before or after. Since the main aim of the military examinations is to determine suitability for military service, they enable a comprehensive picture to be obtained of the health condition of 18-year-old male Austrian citizens. The examination procedure ends with a decision on fitness or unfitness for compulsory military service. This information is no longer taken into account by Statistics Austria from the 2005 birth cohort onwards, as the information on fitness is not an integral part of the description of the state of health of those subject to military service and this characteristic is no longer recorded for data protection reasons.
The data source for these statistics is the results of the medical examinations conducted by the Federal Ministry of Defence.