cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/24428192
Stolen from Reddit.
The big drop in the 1970's was supposedly due to a change in the program to de-emphasize outdoor activities. The step down in 2019 was the LDS church cutting ties and starting their own program.
If you consider this as a proportion of the population it's an even bigger drop. In 1970 there were about 4.8M scouts in a population of 205M, so about 2.3% of all Americans were in Boy Scouts. Now it's 1M scouts in a population of 341M, so only 0.3% of Americans are in Boy Scouts.
I moved from one part of the country to another it's weird how cub scouts in one place will be "hey im janet we like the kids to get together and be scouts. Heres some lemonade" and the other is " im bill , the south will rise again. Beers under the confederate flag"