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.
It's worse than that because they are not even Boy Scouts anymore. They rebranded to Scouting America since the move to be more open around members. Girls and LGBT are now welcome in many troops.
Our pack in particular is also deemphasizing the Christian aspects.
Finally
Would not have let my kids otherwise.