Christian and Secular Youth Organisation Membership, 1951-2006

I have been browsing data tables from the seven editions of Religious Trends, compiled by Peter Brierley and published over 1997 to 2008. Some are highly interesting and I thought it worth attempting to publish them in datablog rather than static page form.

The original book format of Religious Trends meant that there were space limitations and the editor had to be selective with regard to charts and accompanying text. The electronic environment allows us to be a little more expansive.

For now, I am reproducing tables 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 from Religious Trends 7 which provide trend membership data for a selection of Christian and secular youth organisations.

For those interested in datablogging tools, the tables below have been incorporated using WP-Table Reloaded.

UK Membership of Selected Christian and Secular Organisations for Young People, 1951-2011 ('000s)
Organisation	1951	1961	1966	1971	1976	1981	1986	1991	1996	2001	2006
Christian Organisations
Boys' Brigade [3,4]	142	159	143	140	137	154	120	103	90	66	56
Girls' Brigade [3]	138 [1]	119	98	103	99	103	92	86	76	59 [8]	51
Crusaders/Urban Saints: Boys [9]	18 [1]	18 [2]	19	18	15	10	8	9	12	11 [1]	10
Crusaders/Urban Saints: Girls	3 [1]	4 [2]	7	10	10	8	7	8	12	12 [1]	11
Methodist Association of Youth Clubs	101	110	121	115	131	127	78 [1]	40	60 [1]	41 [1]	32 [1]
YMCA: Registered males [5]	29 [1]	33	34	35	31	36	39 [1]	43	46	43 [8]	40 [7]
YMCA: Registered females [5]	0 [1]	5	8	13	16	19	26 [1]	32	34	35 [1]	40 [7]
TOTAL	431	448	430	434	439	457	370	321	330	267	240
Males [6]	247	278	272	263	260	277	211	177	181	141	122
Females [6]	184	170	158	171	176	180	159	144	149	126	118
Percentage male	57	62	63	61	59	61	57	55	55	53	51
Secular Organisations
Cub Scouts [10]	192	245	246	265	296	309	332	349	210	160 [19]	132 [20]
Scouts [11]	237	272	242	215	225	234	213	192	140	113 [21]	99 [22]
Brownie Guides [12]	184	284	329	376	410	427	384	385	422	600 [1]	600
Girl Guides [13]	221	266	244	316	344	348	282	225	181
Sea Cadet Corps	19	18	18	18	21	19	17	16	16	14 [23]	13 [23]
Army Cadet Force	64	44	38	39	42	46	43	39	43 [1]	43 [1]	44 [16]
Air Training Corps	38	30	26	33	34	35	35	34	35 [1]	35 [1]	35 [16]
Combined Cadet Forces	58	76	49	45	43	44	43	40	41 [1]	42 [1]	41
National Association of Boys' Clubs	146 [1]	156	158	164	169	186	172	155	140 [1]	125 [1]	1091
Nat. Federation of Young Farmers Boys' Clubs [14]	24 [1]	32	24 [1]	24	24 [1]	28	24	18	16 [1]	13 [17]	12
Nat. Federation of Young Farmers Girls' Clubs [14]	18 [1]	18	18 [1]	16	18 [1]	23	20	15	12 [1]	11 [17]	10
Youth Clubs UK: Boys [15]	58	94	133	179	276	430	328	310	289	700 [1]	750
Youth Clubs UK: Girls [15]	78	86	106	140	243	341	239	290	361
Duke of Edinburgh's Award: Participants	n/a	80	102 [1]	122	140 [1]	170	165	200	220	222 [1]	225 [24]
Duke of Edinburgh's Award: Bronze Awards [18]	n/a	9	16	18	21	23	20	35	30	30 [1]	31 [1]
Duke of Edinburgh's Award: Silver Awards [18]	n/a	4	7	7	8	10	9	13	12	12 [1]	12 [1]
Duke of Edinburgh's Award: Gold Awards [18]	n/a	1	3	3	3	5	5	6	5	5	5
TOTAL	1337	1715	1759	1980	2317	2678	2331	2322	2173	2125	2118
Male [6]	759	935	929	975	1128	1347	1232	1198	954	808	803
Females [6]	578	766	804	977	1157	1293	1065	1070	1176	1270	1267
Percentage Male	57	55	54	50	49	51	54	53	45	39	39

Footnotes and source notes

[1] Estimated figure

[2] 1956 figure

[3] British Isles figure

[4] Includes those aged over 6 since 1978

[5] Aged under 25

[6] Estimated where not given by assuming pro rata to where given

[7] 2005 figure

[8] Revised in Religious Trends 7

[9] Additional data: Number of Groups
Year	Number of boys’ and girls’ groups
2003	420
2004	409
2005	450
2006	455
2007	540

[10] Includes Beaver Scouts aged 6-8

[11] Includes Venture Scouts aged 15-20 from 1971. Previously Senior Scouts (15-18) and Rover Scouts (18-24)

[12] Includes Rainbow Guides aged 4-7

[13] Includes Ranger Guides aged 14-18 and Young Leaders aged 15-18

[14] National Federation of YOUng Farmers’ Clubs: England, Wales and the Channel Islands, aged 10-25 to 1976 and 10-26 from 1981

[15] Previously Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs

[16] 2005 figure

[17] 1999 figure

[18] Not included in total

[19] Of which 152,000 are male

[20] Of which 121,000 are male

[21] Of which 102,000 are male

[22] Of which 86,000 are male

[23] Of which 63% are assumed male based on 2005 percentage

[24] Of which 138,000 were new entrants

Original Source: The individual organisations

Originally published as Tables 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 in P. Brierley (ed.), UK Christian Handbook Religious Trends 7 2007/2008 (Christian Research 2008). Forwarded projections to 2011 omitted here. Published here as a derivative work with the permission of Christian Research.

British Religion in Numbers: All the material published on this website is subject to copyright. We explain further here.

4 Responses to Christian and Secular Youth Organisation Membership, 1951-2006

Paul McCabe says:

March 23, 2011 at 12:54 pm

Does it really make sense to classify Scouts and Guides as secular youth organisations (acknowledging the equal problem of classifying them as Christian organisations)?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Scouting
Since they make up between 35% and 49% of the total in this time period, I think they probably should be presented separately.
Best wishes
Paul
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Siobhan McAndrew says:

March 23, 2011 at 3:15 pm

I was reproducing the tables from Religious Trends 7 which applied the distinction. I did wonder whether the distinction was so ‘hard and fast’ as I was copying the tables. I was never a Guide or a Scout but remember there being an oath to God and the Queen – do they still have those? Apart from the actual tenets of the movement (of which I know nothing) I presume that many groups are organised in loose affiliation with churches – not as a formal part of the church programme and open to all children, but nevertheless organised by members of the congregation using church halls, advertising via church websites and on noticeboards. Others may have thoughts to offer here.

When I upload the tables to brin.ac.uk/figures I could simply remove the secular/religious distinction for others to apply as they wish.

If anybody has similar historical data for other youth organisations do send it in!
NixonisLord says:

March 24, 2011 at 10:19 pm

Scouts in the UK don’t have to be specifically religious to be in the Scouts; atheists and humanists are openly members. In the USA this is often a problem but it doesn’t seem to be an issue in the UK (or in the rest of the European Scout Area, except for Turkey).

Christian and Secular Youth Organisation Membership, 1951-2006

4 Responses to Christian and Secular Youth Organisation Membership, 1951-2006

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