Unit Membership StatisticsClick here for Home


   If you never thought BSA was not obsessed with numbers, then take a look at some of BSA's early Annual Reports. Some of these reports could reach 800+ pages in length (compared to the 20+ page reports of today) and were filled with pages of tables of almost every conceivable Scouting data. Many tables were arranged by states, councils, regions, etc.
   The very early years of BSA's organization was a bit chaotic, to say the least. Registration in these early years was not of Troops, or even of Scouts, but of "Scout Masters." It was not until the beginning of 1911 that troops were first chartered, and October 1913 before Scouts were first registered.
   Whenever one looks at the number of registered youth and units from BSA, one must remember -- contrary to BSA's public position that it has not changed -- that BSA has indeed changed over it's almost 100 years.

   I'll try to refresh your memory of some of these changes:

  • Scouting was originally only for boys 12 and older. That was dropped to 11 years of age.
     
  • Sea Scouting, which became a part of Senior Scouting and then Exploring, now Venturing, was started in 1912.
     
  • Cub Scouting was formally approved in 1933, adding boys as young as 9 years of age to BSA's numbers.
     
  • Girls were allowed to join Exploring in 1969.
     
  • By the end of the 1980's, Cub Scouting was expanded to a 5-year program, allowing 7 and 8-year-old boys to join BSA.
     
  • In 1990, BSA created the Learning for Life program, which had previously been known as In-School Scouting. In some reports, BSA includes LFL numbers with traditional programs, causing a lot of confusion.
     
  • In 1998, BSA created the Venturers Program for the non-career awareness Exploring units. The career awareness Exploring units were transferred to the LFL program.
     
  • BSA created Varsity Scouting in the 1990's, as a result of pressure from the LDS.
     
  • In an attempt to reverse years of membership decline in Cub Scouting, BSA has recently introduced Soccer and Scouting.

   By now you should realize that one cannot draw any conclusions of the increase or decrease of membership, just by comparing the number of registered youth and units from year to year. One has to factor in the myriad of program changes and additions, before one can make any type of statement. However, when looked at over a 5, or even a 10-year time span, then interpretations can be made from changes in membership.
   Having said this, one also has to remember that the numbers provided are probably not even the actual numbers at the end of each year. This is based on two important factors.
   BSA's reliance on numbers and increasing membership have resulted in the manipulation of membership figures. This is not only a well-known "secret" amongst Scouters, but was made public for the first time on a national scale in the in the 1970's, It originated in the Chicago Area Council, but spread to about 20 councils that publicly admitted wrongdoing. Despite the assurances made after the Chicago scandal, a string of membership scandals have surfaced every couple of years. Not too long ago, a federal grand jury was impaneled to investigate the Circle Ten Council (Dallas, TX) and the FBI is investigating the Greater Alabama Council. The numbers game played out in councils is well known to Scouters and too long to discuss here.
   The second reason is that the data is only as good as what was recorded. In this case, the assignment that a chartering organization actually is a Roman Catholic organization. I can recall looking at lists of Roman Catholic chartered units in my council, and noticing that some were not listed and some that were listed, were not Roman Catholic. Hopefully this has been fixed, but it is always a potential problem.
   Another factor to consider is that the BSA has a habit of changing annual membership numbers once they've been released. In many cases reports from within the BSA will have one number and several months later another report will show a different number, for the same reporting period. The same is true with historical numbers printed in Annual Reports. If I have a figure for one year from an earlier BSA document that is restated in a later BSA document, I will generally report the restated figure. Which is the correct number, I cannot say.
   The last issue to address is individual members. It is a fact that today, Catholic youth are not required to be members of Catholic chartered units. Additionally, non-Catholics are able to join Catholic units. (To my knowledge, there are few, if any, closed-Catholic only units in the BSA.) Therefore, the number of youth registered in Catholic chartered units cannot be used to determine the actual number of Catholic youth involved in Scouting. One rough approximation that has been used is the number of Scouts who attend National Jamborees. As just about all of the Jamborees Scouts attend religious services on the Sunday during the Jamboree, it has been extrapolated that approximately 25% of youth in BSA are Catholic, as about 25% of the Jamboree Scouts attend Catholic mass.
   The use of the Jamboree population as a sample set is not statistically valid given the self-selection of participants and the costs associated with attendance. However, until BSA provides for the option of noting a member's religious affiliation on their registration form, we'll never have an accurate number of Catholic Scouts. An alternative is to commission a study to determine the religious affiliation of BSA members. Until then, we have these numbers (I will attempt to update this table in the future, as time and information permits.):

Boy Scouts of America
Roman Catholic Unit Sponsorship
1910-2008

Year

No. of
RC Units

No. of
Church Units

Total No.
of Units

No. of
RC Youth

No. of BSA
Youth Members

1910-1911

N/A

N/A

1,500

N/A

55,220

1912

N/A

N/A

 

N/A

88,330

1913

N/A

N/A

 

N/A

101,604

1914

N/A

N/A

 

N/A

101,881

1915

48

3,716

7,375

N/A

143,782

1916

93

4,328

9,898

N/A

190,838

1917

224

7,319

13,496

N/A

281,044

1918

355

 

15,322

N/A

332,247

1919

420

8,078

16,826

N/A

360,069

1920

447

8,078

16,485

N/A

376,537

1921

1,031

9,060

17,589

N/A

392,288

1922

1,042

10,803

19,007

N/A

405,111

1923

N/A

N/A

20,313

N/A

445,700

1924

1,036

12,117

22,035

N/A

541,227

1925

1,173

12,369

22,963

N/A

592,132

1926

N/A

N/A

24,771

N/A

606,955

1927

N/A

N/A

25,646

N/A

596,565

1928

N/A

N/A

26,711

N/A

600,316

1929

1,054

12,121

27,472

N/A

606,396

1930

1,149

13,161

28,193

N/A

628,484

1931

N/A

N/A

29,527

N/A

670,216

1932

1,149

N/A

30,313

N/A

680,372

1933

1,792

13,843

28,752

N/A

707,598

1934

1,928

N/A

 

N/A

755,146

1935

2,319

14,424

31,986

N/A

795,902

1936

3,102

15,595

33,707

N/A

825,271

1937

3,237

15,904

34,430

N/A

874,599

1938

3,541

18,879

36,180

N/A

957,112

1939

3,949

20,429

44,541

N/A

1,042,426

1940

4,125

21,784

47,938

N/A

1,105,941

1941

3,990

22,618

50,657

N/A

1,172,943

1942

4,601

22,910

51,347

N/A

1,205,119

1943

4,404

19,990

51,884

N/A

1,268,785

1944

4,661

26,026

56,810

N/A

1,470,621

1945

4,879

28,203

60,794

N/A

1,533,718

1946

5,351

31,053

66,155

N/A

1,553,620

1947

5,704

32,286

68,675

N/A

1,584,927

1948

5,745

33,051

70,246

N/A

1,621,162

1949

5,994

34,201

72,857

N/A

1,923,976

1950

6,516

36,913

78,649

N/A

2,071,649

1951

6,873

38,163

81,084

N/A

2,178,690

1952

7,322

40,197

85,381

N/A

2,350,597

1953

7,914

42,431

89,815

N/A

2,498,793

1954

8,622

46,638

96,834

224,000

2,770,255

1955

9,426

50,657

103,951

N/A

3,055,850

1956

10,431

54,394

111,255

N/A

3,312,841

1957

11,384

58,131

117,936

N/A

3,460,971

1958

12,253

62,363

124,544

N/A

3,615,073

1959

12,699

64,726

129,194

N/A

3,686,763

1960

12,814

65,094

 

 

3,783,073

1961

13,140

66,509

132,620

 

3,813,227

1962

13,293

67,995

135,380

 

3,909,485

1963

13,373

69,329

136,821

 

3,996,294

1964

13,446

70,907

140,192

 

4,123,196

1965

13,917

73,070

145,318

501,000

4,231,036

1966

14,058

73,965

148,005

 

4,407,159

1967

14,262

74,682

149,455

 

4,569,293

1968

14,178

74,750

152,284

 

4,636,999

1969

13,954

73,898

152,814

 

4,649,657

1970

13,850

74,690

156,940

 

4,721,213

1971

13,952

76,966

163,291

 

4,805,519

1972

14,066

78,034

168,132

 

4,891,926

1973

13,447

77,249

171,666

445,112

4,843,111

1974

12,810

68,079

150,116

365,302

4,327,654

1975

11,765

 

 

 

3,932,847

1976

11,387

64,783

140,535

 

3,599,929

1977

10,754

63,442

137,335

 

3,465,887

1978

 

62,624

134,171

313,827

3,303,269

1979

9,278

61,174

129,104

260,145

3,157,294

1980

9,125

62,042

129,753

256,323

3,179,639

1981

9,526

62,079

130,571

271,866

3,246,056

1982

10,148

64,087

132,412

291,563

4,542,449

1983

10,738

64,904

133,500

316,713

4,688,953

1984

10,497

65,301

134,311

299,374

4,748,511

1985

10,667

65,306

133,130

312,448

4,845,040

1986

10,548

65,574

131,452

327,491

4,036,818

1987

10,525

66,777

130,457

342,946

 

1988

10,325

66,895

130,667

332,428

4,228,336

1989

9,774

66,300

130,022

307,276

4,246,915

1990

9,528

67,034

130,968

298,984

3,918,672

1991

9,346

67,709

124,628

286,015

3,501,402

1992

9,350

68,501

123,045

285,676

3,453,315

1993

9,253

69,187

123,989

 

3,427,374

1994

 

 

125,221

 

3,403,334

1995

9,549

 

126,463

324,910

3,016,345

1996

9,590

 

128,937

 

3,518,255

1997

9,665

 

119,704

355,416

3,624,038

1998

9,635

 

121,799

 

3,383,439

1999

 

 

123,912

 

3,392,144

2000

 

 

124,660

 

3,351,969

2001

9,587

 

123,935

345,568

3,325,504

2002

9,886

 

 

347,578

3,304,592

2003

9,700

 

126,749

332,130

3,200,218

2004

9,713

 

126,232

324,950

3,145,331

2005

9,508

 

122,582

307,321

2,938,698

2006

9,532

79,259

121,530

303,064

2,868,963

2007

9,400

79,138

121,034

297,311

2,855,833

2008

9,265

 

120,262

291,443

2,831,992

 


 



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