Percentage of People Willing to Fight for their Country in Europe

Would you be willing to fight for your country? This is the question Gallup asked residents in many countries; this question is interesting because the answers to it can tell us about the political climate in Europe and how it changes over time as a result of political events.

So in 2017 a map based on WIN/Gallup-type polling showed relatively low willingness to fight in much of Western Europe — the Netherlands about 15%, Germany about 18% and Belgium about 19% — while some countries reported much higher shares: Finland roughly 74%, Turkey about 73% and Ukraine around 62%; at that time Russia was commonly listed at about 59%.

Those 2017 figures reflect several things. Where the risk of invasion or immediate territorial threat looked real, the share saying they would fight was higher — for Ukraine and Finland many respondents read the question as defending the homeland (for Ukraine, in practice, about resisting a Russian invasion). In countries further from direct threat, people often pictured other scenarios: in places like the UK or France respondents could interpret the question as referring to overseas deployments (Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali) or expeditionary missions rather than local defence.

Gallup-International published an updated survey with fieldwork at the end of 2023 and a release in 2024. In the Gallup-International numbers the lowest “yes” shares in Europe are Italy about 14%, the Netherlands about 15%, Belgium about 19% and Austria about 20%, while Ukraine (62%) and Finland (74%) remain near the top of the list. The most noticeable shift between the maps is Russia: Gallup-International reports about 32% of respondents in Russia saying “yes” in 2023–24, down from roughly 59% in the earlier WIN/Gallup-era figures. Journalists and analysts link that decline to the effects of the war in Ukraine — prolonged mobilisation, economic pressure and rising fatigue — and political scientists such as Ekaterina Schulmann point to internal polling and commentary suggesting many Russians would like to see the fighting end.