The Ethnic Groups Military Recruitment Data

ABSTRACT Military conscription affects how countries expand political rights and fight wars, as well as their citizens' view of the state and socioeconomic outcomes. Until recently, conscription was studied in a simplified fashion, missing cases where it only applies to specific societal groups. We introduce the Ethnic Military Recruitment (EGMR) data, which allows investigating selective conscription at the level of affected societal groups. The dataset is the first source providing global, systematic group‐level military recruitment data for all countries that implemented conscription over the 1946–2010 period. We explain how the data were coded, describe the landscape of selective military conscription over the period of observation and begin to assess its correlates at both country and group levels. The EGMR data offer new pathways for research on the causes and consequences of ethnic groups' societal inclusion, as well as civil–military relations, colonial legacies and civil conflict.