The results of this year’s Census have just been published and is shows that the number of Scouts and Leaders are up again!
From the Scout Association’s website –
Scouting has grown for the fourth year running. Adult volunteering is increasing at the fastest rate for 23 years and there are now just as many girls as boys joining the Movement.
This year Scouting has seen an increase in adult volunteers with growth up from 1.6% to 2.6%. There have only been two other occasions in the last 23 years where the growth of adult leaders has exceeded 2%.
Female membership is up 11% across the UK smashing the 50K barrier. A surge of over 5,500 new girl Scouts means that over the past 12 months almost as many girls as boys have signed up to the adventure of Scouting.
Girls have been part of the adventure since 1976 and this year female membership pushed well past the 50,000 mark to a record 56,470.
This means that girls now account for 14% of all youth members of the Scout Movement. Female leadership is also booming, with women now making up around 43% of all adult volunteers.
I haven’t copied the entire text, which you can read for yourself.
This is really great news and proves what a great job Groups are doing up and down the country. I think a part of the reason for the increase in numbers is the Centenary celebrations in 2007. By getting a lot of positive publicity, this reminded people that we still existed and that we provide interesting, different and challenging activities for young people which doesn’t involve the TV!
An interesting point to note is the number of adults has increased again. Without adult Leaders, Groups cannot provide the quality programmes and numbers decrease.
It’s quite noticeable that our Group is virtually full and cannot take any more kids in any of the sections! This is not through want of Leaders, but through the fact that we can’t reasonably fit any more in the hall.
That’s kind of a nice situation to be in!