WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Boy Scouts of America celebrates its 100th anniversary, 39% of adult men in the United States tell Gallup they have been a member of the organization at one time. Fewer men in their 20s and 30s report having been in the Boy Scouts than older men, suggesting that younger generations are not joining at the same rate as previous generations.

The results are based on interviews with more than 81,000 adult males, conducted as part of Gallup Daily polling April 20-Oct. 4, 2010. Gallup asked male respondents if they were ever a member of the Boy Scouts. The resulting data could include long-term Boy Scouts as well as those who were only briefly members or who were members of the Cub Scouts or other Scout-related programs.

Despite the large proportion of American men overall who report having been Boy Scouts, the figure is 45% among men aged 50 and older, compared with 27% of men aged 18 to 24.

The Gallup data reveal that being a Boy Scout is modestly related to higher average levels of educational attainment. Among those aged 25 and older, 22% of men who have been Boy Scouts report graduating from college, compared with 16% of non-Scouts. Additionally, 19% of men who have been Boy Scouts have gone on to achieve a postgraduate education, compared with 13% of non-Scouts.

While the relationship between scouting and education is clear, the cause is not. Although it is possible that membership in Boy Scouts promotes and furthers education, it is also possible that Boy Scouts are more likely to come from more prosperous backgrounds or families that value education, or perhaps have higher levels of personal motivation that spur them on to achievement in scouting and in education.

In similar fashion, men who have been Boy Scouts also report higher annual incomes on average than non-Scouts. Twenty-eight percent of former Boy Scouts report an annual income of $90,000 or more, compared with 20% of non-Scouts. At the same time, 7% of non-Scouts report making less than $12,000 per year, compared with 4% of men who have been Boy Scouts.

Again, as with the education findings, the direction of causality between being a Boy Scout and income level in adulthood cannot be established with these data.

Bottom Line

In collaboration with Baylor University and with funding from the John M. Templeton Foundation, Gallup is collecting nationally representative data to further understand what types of Americans engage in Boy Scouts and the impact of scouting on youth development in the United States.