What?? You've Got to Be Kidding Me with These Membership Numbers!

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On 1/22/2026 at 11:32 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

Yes, the 31 December 2025 number of "Total Unit-Based" is 877,403.  If you included Learning for Life numbers, then the total youth served by Scouting America programs on 31 Dec 2025 was 907,950.

The 31 Dec 2024 Unit-Based number was 956,541.  So, that one year period change was a loss of 79,138 Scouts, or an 8.27% loss from the Dec 2024 numbers.

Current number reporting today (Unit-Based only) is 837,145.

There have been numerous problems with online registrations, particularly if families delayed...  If the unit charter lapsed, families were blocked from renewing registrations.  I imagine we will be seeing a cleanup of that boondoggle through March. 

So, my gut tells me the 837K number is low.  If accurate, it would mean a loss 40K Scouts since end of 2025. (Another loss of 4.56% of membership.) 

LFL is not considered part of the unit based numbers, and unit based numbers are where national counts membership. LFL is like a bonus thing or something (I don't quite get it). 

On 1/22/2026 at 2:24 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Historically, the end of year numbers have always come out in March, as they have had rechartering issues in the past too. I remember one pack that had paperwork issues, was "dropped," and then reappear with their membership numbers magically added to the end of year numbers once the charter was completed.

I hope I am wrong, but I do not think we will reach 975,672 (2% growth) for 2025 when everything is said and done. I do not think we will suddenly find 68,534 members.

This is correct, what has been shared with me is showing that Jan 1 dump, and slow uptick of people rushing to renew; however, those Jan 1 numbers were real as a drop-is-a-drop and there are no guarantees that those people will renew. When they do renew, the membership is backdated which often presents issues. Some parents are lapsing on purpose to try and change their scouts membership dates and that only works if you lapse for over 90 days; however, that also presents a bigger problem for renewing. I was just helping with a scout who lapsed after Sep 30th and it was a 2 week nightmare to get him back on the books; the parents wanted him "covered" in the lapsed period so national back dated him and now the parents are pissed because his renewal date is back in September again. There are a bunch of lapses because parents are trying to cheat the system for some reason. The whole lapsed period versus expired thing is a nightmare and in this digital age national should just get rid of both and just terminate membership when they expire.