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BSA Membership Graph (1911 - 2023) (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 months ago by Blaze@sopuli.xyz to c/dataisbeautiful@mander.xyz

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

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"

[–] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 points 2 months ago

Speaking as a former den leader, it's humbling but not surprising to see that the pandemic literally cut membership in half and there was no bounce back. I got my den through it, and we lost a few, but gained a couple new kids the year after the vaccines came out. I never realized it was this bad.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago

The horror?

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

that's awesome!

[–] Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Finally

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago

Would not have let my kids otherwise.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Those all sound like good things to me.

[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I think they meant worse than that for the BSA. They're allowing way more people to join than ever before, and they're still down in membership.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No I meant that BSA does not exist anymore so that chart stops at last year, its now Scouting America. I was being too cheeky. FFS its good news that they opened up to everyone.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Ah. The way you wrote that I was wondering if Catholic trad-dad found his way onto Lemmy somehow.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 1 points 2 months ago

Lol, def not how anyone would describe me.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Oh, I see what you mean - I read it as OP criticising those progressive moves, but yeah, they might have meant it your way, fair point.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Your explanation makes a lot of sense actually, because of how they start out.

Good call, I’ve reversed my downvote

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Our pack in particular is also deemphasizing the Christian aspects.

that's a start.