I am a Scout -- formerly of Woy Woy Sea Scouts, and now part of another troop, after moving. Few people know exactly how many Scouts there are in the world, and few people know just how young the entire Scout organization is.
First of all, let's make this clear: there are two Scout organizations, actually far more, if you include the organizations like the World Organization of Independent Scouts and even more if you include Scout-like organizations like the Royal Rangers. By far the largest and oldest Scout organization is the World Organization of the Scout Movement, or WOSM. These Scouts are called Scouts or Boy Scouts. The second largest is the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). In countries like America where the regular WOSM-associated Scout movement only admits boys to their Scouts, the Girl Guides are called Girl Scouts, and the WAGGGS Scout movement tends to be far larger. In countries where there is only Girl Guides, Girl Guides are simply called "Scouts", and the Scout movement admits boys to their Scouts.
Needless to say, WOSM is larger than WAGGGS... by 30 million Scouts. There are roughly 53 million Scouts in the world, not counting adults. That's about 1% of the entire world population, and 2.5% of everybody under the age of 18.
It's amazing how new Scouts is. Far from being thousands of years old, both Scouts and Guides were started by one man, at the beginning of the 20th century. The man in question was Robert Baden-Powell, whose name is well known in the Scouting society. Baden-Powell served as a lieutenant-general in the British army, and was the garrison commander at the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Boer War. When in the army, Baden-Powell wrote a manual, Aids to Scouting, to be used to train soldiers. By the time the Mafeking siege had been lifted, Aids to Scouting was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Baden-Powell decided to rewrite the book so it could be used by children, and held a camp for 20 boys on Brownsea Island on 1907 to test out his ideas in the book.
The book itself, Scouting for Boys, was a roaring success. Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops around the world, and within a year, there were almost 25,000 Scouts in the world, 11,000 of which turned up at the Crystal Palace Rally in London in 1909. The Girl Guides movement was formalized under Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes, with help from Baden-Powell himself.
In 1920, the first World Scout Jamboree took place. Jamborees are massive events which happen every three or four years, and involve all the Scouts in a country or even the world. In 1922, there were almost a million Scouts world wide. In 1939 there were 3 million.
Scouts is for ages 11 to 18; however, Cub Scouts was quickly added for years 8 to 12. In some countries, such as Australia, there is Rover Scouts for ages 18 to 26. Some countries even cut Scouts in half, leaving Scouts for ages 11 to 15 and Venture Scouts for ages 14 to 18. The Scout movement has long ago become the largest youth organization in the world. And it's still growing.
First of all, let's make this clear: there are two Scout organizations, actually far more, if you include the organizations like the World Organization of Independent Scouts and even more if you include Scout-like organizations like the Royal Rangers. By far the largest and oldest Scout organization is the World Organization of the Scout Movement, or WOSM. These Scouts are called Scouts or Boy Scouts. The second largest is the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). In countries like America where the regular WOSM-associated Scout movement only admits boys to their Scouts, the Girl Guides are called Girl Scouts, and the WAGGGS Scout movement tends to be far larger. In countries where there is only Girl Guides, Girl Guides are simply called "Scouts", and the Scout movement admits boys to their Scouts.
Needless to say, WOSM is larger than WAGGGS... by 30 million Scouts. There are roughly 53 million Scouts in the world, not counting adults. That's about 1% of the entire world population, and 2.5% of everybody under the age of 18.
It's amazing how new Scouts is. Far from being thousands of years old, both Scouts and Guides were started by one man, at the beginning of the 20th century. The man in question was Robert Baden-Powell, whose name is well known in the Scouting society. Baden-Powell served as a lieutenant-general in the British army, and was the garrison commander at the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Boer War. When in the army, Baden-Powell wrote a manual, Aids to Scouting, to be used to train soldiers. By the time the Mafeking siege had been lifted, Aids to Scouting was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Baden-Powell decided to rewrite the book so it could be used by children, and held a camp for 20 boys on Brownsea Island on 1907 to test out his ideas in the book.
The book itself, Scouting for Boys, was a roaring success. Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops around the world, and within a year, there were almost 25,000 Scouts in the world, 11,000 of which turned up at the Crystal Palace Rally in London in 1909. The Girl Guides movement was formalized under Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes, with help from Baden-Powell himself.
In 1920, the first World Scout Jamboree took place. Jamborees are massive events which happen every three or four years, and involve all the Scouts in a country or even the world. In 1922, there were almost a million Scouts world wide. In 1939 there were 3 million.
Scouts is for ages 11 to 18; however, Cub Scouts was quickly added for years 8 to 12. In some countries, such as Australia, there is Rover Scouts for ages 18 to 26. Some countries even cut Scouts in half, leaving Scouts for ages 11 to 15 and Venture Scouts for ages 14 to 18. The Scout movement has long ago become the largest youth organization in the world. And it's still growing.
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