Taiwan's pool of conscripts in 2022 will be the smallest in a decade, as the island faces a demographic crisis due to its plummeting birth rate.
According to government estimates, the conscripts will total no more than 118,000. That number is set to decline further, even as the island faces Beijing's mounting aggression.
There will be a "sharp drop" in the number of males who will turn 18 - the enlistment age - in the next few years.
Taiwan's estimated fertility rate of just over one child (1.08) per woman in 2022 is the lowest in the world.