Historical Numbers?

[Horizon]

All:

 

I am interested in seeing the historical numbers of registered Scouts (and perhaps Scouters) by year, preferably going back to the 50s. I want to run that against census data of available youth to track the actual popularity of our program at different times. I also want to run total numbers of Eagle awards granted in a given year as well.

 

I have seen this data from the 2011 Report to the Nation:

 

1,583,166 boys ages 6 to 10 in Cub Scouting

909,576 boys ages 11 to 17 in Boy Scouting and Varsity Scouting

231,127 young men and women ages 14 to 20 in Venturing and Sea Scouts

511,359 boys and girls in elementary through high school in Learning for Life charactereducation programs

112,783 young men and women ages 14 to 20 in Exploring career-based programs

 

But I was wondering if anyone had seen a historical list of these numbers by year.

 

Thanks.

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

scroll down to the table:

http://bsa-discrimination.org/html/bsa_membership.html

It has BSA membership from 1986-2011 and TAY from 1992-2008

[Horizon]

Thanks Merlyn.

[Kahuna]

It's pretty dramatic from those stats. I just finished some research on Narragansett Council, RI. In 1962, the council had 26,631 total youth in 545 units. Today, according to the council website, they serve "almost" 26,000 members. The council is geographically larger, as I understand it, today than it was in 1962. I'm sure the current numbers include LFL.

[SeattlePioneer]

Merlyn's biased source implies that declines in Scout membership has something to do with the gay issue. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

 

It's primarily a reflection of the dramatic growth of Asian and Latino populations, which BSA has found difficult to penetrate, plus the continuing difficulty in recruiting more African American Scouts.

 

In my view as a district membership chair, the gay issue has little to do with BSA membership numbers.

[Horizon]

SeattlePioneer - Merlyn's source obviously has a slant, but I just want the numbers over time. This is something that should be easy to get, but I could not find it anywhere else.

 

Our numerical drop is not going to be because of any one issue - rather it is a combination of factors.

 

- Competition from other youth activities

- Loss of recruiting access at schools

- Mobile workforce (people losing connection to their communities)

- Single parents (time to commit to youth activities)

- Our loss of presence in the marketplace (we are no longer omnipresent)

- The ongoing "cool" factor in regards to popularity

- Perception of being a white Christian organization, when demographics are shifting away from that in the US

- Perception of being an exclusionary group vs gays and lesbians as well, hurting us with liberal/progressive parents

 

But I was honestly just interested in our real numbers, and our real market penetration among available youth. If you have better numbers through your role - I would love to see them.

[infoscouter]

Previous year's annual reports (with membership statistics) are available here:

 

http://www.scouting.org/About/AnnualReports/PreviousYears.aspx

[Basementdweller]

How about SE with exaggerated membership numbers adjusting them to actually as a result of some court cases??????

[Horizon]

Infoscouter - many thanks. I will check the numbers from Merlyn against those.

 

(The first number for 1996 was exactly what Merlyn's cite showed FYI).

 

Anybody have anything going back to before the 70s? I have heard that we lost 1/3 of units with the "no camping" change, but again want to see numbers to evaluate on my own.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Horizon,

 

 

Well, no doubt you have a good list of additional problems.

 

As a District Membership Chair, I like to concentrate on things I can do something about. And what I aim to do something about is finding ways to recruit more under represented ethnic group youths, beginning with Latinos.

 

I've been studying the issue of how English speaking Cub Scout Packs can recruit more Latinos for nearly two years, and I think I have some answers about how to do that.

 

My pack recruiting night will be September 12th. I'll know then whether my bright ideas have some merit or not.

 

If I'm lucky enough to have some success with recruiting more Latinos, the next issue is how to keep 'em.

[Peregrinator]

It's primarily a reflection of the dramatic growth of Asian and Latino populations, which BSA has found difficult to penetrate

 

If that is true, then there should be a dramatic spike in BSA membership when they are able to penetrate those populations, which tend to be tight-knit, family- and community-oriented, etc.

[Horizon]

SeattlePioneer:

 

I have been very lucky with Asian communities (Korean and Chinese), plus Indian. The trick with the Asian communities is the moms I have found.

 

I don't have Latinos in my immediate area - though there are some successful Troops in the next town over.

 

Again - my interest in the numbers is seeing what is going with us, and other youth organizations.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Horizon,

 

 

>

 

 

I'm not a big believer in luck. I'd prefer to suppose you have identified some methods of doing Scouting which have paid off with Asians.

 

I can't do much with someone else's luck. If someone has some effective Scouting practices that pay off in recruiting and keeping new Scouts, that's something I'd like to hear about.

 

Anything like that you can suggest?

[packsaddle]

This unit has a nice mix of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds. We don't have any special program things to accomplish this, just a more-or-less traditional program that families all seem to be comfortable with. I think the hardest barriers to overcome have more to do with economic status and we don't confront that very often.

[Horizon]

I use luck in my phrasing to avoid thinking that I am better than I am.

 

As taught to me, recent immigrant Asian families are looking for a way to help their sons be part of America (which we represent) plus get an edge on college (yep - the Eagle). Many of the families around me have fathers still running the factories back in Asia, while their sons and wives get a US education.

 

If you get one from the local school, get them to come to a meeting and bring friends. Look for the woman that the others are deferring to - there is a pecking order like in any other group. Get that one on your side and she will start bringing in more youth and moms. These moms will not camp, but they will run popcorn sales and create the most amazing pot-luck events.

 

This is gross stereotyping due to the communications medium, but this is what has worked for me.(This message has been edited by Horizon)