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.

  • @[email protected]
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    219 days 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    219 days 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"

  • @[email protected]
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    -720 days ago

    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.