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.

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • infinitevalenceEnglish
        7·
        3 months ago

        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.

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 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.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

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

        Good call, I’ve reversed my downvote