Related material on Subject from this board

[skeptic]

http://www.thestevensons.com/

 

 

As of 9/31/05 there were more than 28 million Scouts, young people and adults, male and female, in 216 countries and territories.

There are 155 countries with internationally recognized national Scout Organizations.

There are 26 territories where Scouting exists as overseas branches of member Scout Organizations.

There are 35 countries where Scouting exists but where there is no National Scout Organization which is yet a member of WOSM.

There are 6 countries where Scouting does not exist. (Andorra, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar)

The top 10 countries in number of Scouts are:

Indonesia 8,909,435 88% Muslim

United States 6,239,435 78% Christian

India 2,138,015 81% Hindu

Philippines 1,956,131 92% Christian

Thailand 1,305,027 95% Buddhist

Bangladesh 908,435 83% Muslim

Pakistan 526,403 97% Muslim

United Kingdom 498,888 72% Christian

Republic of Korea 252,157 26% Christian/26% Buddhist

Japan 220,223 84% Shinto/Buddhist

From this chart it can be easily seen that Scouting is a movement for all major religions. Worldwide the world is 33% Christian, 20% Muslim, 13% Hindu, and 6% Buddhist. In these 10 countries, Scouting is 40% Muslim, 29% Christian, 8% Hindu, and 6% Buddhist. So, it appears that Scouting reflects rather well the major religions of the world.

 

[Beavah]

Yah, but note da Atheist countries (China, North Korea, etc...) don't have scouting programs.

 

Beavah

 

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

So which is the amusing part Beavah, the religious discrimination or the totalitarianism?

[evmori]

The amusing part is assuming atheists care about Scouting!

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Some do Ed, otherwise there wouldn't be any instances of atheists being thrown out or refused membership. But the "humor" in Beavah's remark strikes me as similar to someone in a worldwide whites-only organization pointing out that they don't have many branches in Africa, hyuk, hyuk, hyuk, so I suppose the humor is in discriminating against fellow human beings. Yeah, that's always good for a laugh.

[evmori]

You seem to be the only one yucking, Merlyn.

[ScoutLass]

Sweden, Norway and Denmark have Scouting and also have high populations of athiests/agnositics.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

 

The lack of Scouting in places like China and North Korea has nothing to do with the religious beliefs of the country or its population, but by the corruptness of the government. Let's not compare apples to oranges.

[NJCubScouter]

Good points, Scoutlass, and I'll add that Carl Gustaf, the King of Sweden (the number 1 country on the atheists/agnostics list), is very involved in Scouting worldwide, being (among other things) honorary president of the World Scout Foundation and a regular visitor at World Jamborees. He also visited the 1981 U.S. National Jamboree in Virginia; although I wasn't there, I have a newspaper (the Jamboree Times or something like that) showing him there in his Swedish Scout uniform.

 

Also notice that Vietnam, a Communist country and number 2 on the atheist list, apparently does have Scouting. And that one of the countries that does not have Scouting, Myanmar, is not on the "Top 50 Atheist" list, and is predominantly Buddhist. Another country that does not have Scouting is Andorra, which according to its Wikipedia article is 90 percent Roman Catholic (and actually has a Catholic bishop as one of its two nominal monarchs.)

 

So I think the lesson we can draw from all this is that countries that have Scouting, have Scouting, and countries that do not have Scouting, do not have Scouting. That's about it.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

[SSScout]

Skeptic: This is neat... Where/what is the source of this data? I don't see it on Stevensons' site.

[skeptic]

http://www.rhodyman.net/home.html

 

Okay, I think I found the proper link. The original one came through Stevenson's page, "Collectors' References" link on the left. It is called Hennings Home Page. Give it a try; a lot of interesting stuff.

[frank10]

If I recall correctly, the states are a bit misleading, the US stats do not include the Girl Scouts where as Indonesia has a single program for both male and female scouts.

 

 

[SSScout]

Yep, lots of talent and info, but where did the stats come from? I can't seem to find anything like them there. Lots of links. Which ones?

[skeptic]

His Scouter's pages; Historical perspectives; Scouting

[CalicoPenn]

Andorra doesn't have Scouting - though it does have a (defunct) Scouting Association. It's also a very small principality whose Scouting needs are apparently being met by a neighboring Catalan scouting association. I don't think there is a big takeaway from this stat other than, as has been said, some countries have Scouting, some don't.

 

For a long time, none of the Soviet allied countries had Scouting. But they did have their own youth groups - most were called some kind of Pioneer group, and most of those Pioneer groups replaced Scouting in countries where there was Scouting. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of those Pioneer groups folded and were replaced by Scouting groups. In some countries though, like Russia, both Scouting and Pioneers exist.

 

Cuba may not have a Scouting group, but it does have a Pioneer group. Cuba used to have a Scouting group, that was apparently still active for a couple of years after the Cuban Revolution. Some say that Scouting was banned, but there is no hard evidence to support this contention. In 1961, WOSM suspended the Scout Association of Cuba from membership. The evidence points to the Scout Association of Cuba being rolled up into the Jose Marti Pioneer group in 1961 rather than being banned, just as other Soviet allied groups had done. It's a bit of a gray area as to which happened first - the suspension of the WOSM membership of the Scout Association of Cuba or the formation of the Jose Marti Pioneer Group. I've not been able to find a more complete timeline other than the WOSM suspended the SAC in 1961 and Cuba formed the Jose Marti Pioneer group in 1961.

 

Both China and North Korea also have Pioneer groups as well.

 

Though there are many differences between Pioneer groups and Scouting, there are also many similarities.

[sherminator505]

I'm not sure where all this is going...