Scouting grows in Wales

Posted 27 April 2009

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 in Wales has seen an increase in adult volunteers with growth up from 2% to 2.2%. The UK figures are 1.6% for last year and 2.6% for this. 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 and 11.8% here in Wales, 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 in the UK pushed well past the 50,000 mark to a record 56,470.

This means that girls now account for 15% of all youth members of the Scout Movement in Wales. Female leadership is also booming in Wales with women now making up around 49% of adult volunteers.

But it's not only female membership that's on the increase - the entire Movement, from six to 25 year olds, is expanding for the fourth year running, with Explorer Scouting for 14-18 year olds seeing its biggest ever increase.

With a total membership of nearly 15,000, an increase of 4.8%, we now have the most members in Wales for five years. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the UK.

A call to action

Despite this impressive growth, demand still far outstrips supply and waiting lists remain at an all-time high due to the need for more adult volunteers.

Last year, there were more than 30,000 young people aged between six and 25 waiting to join. Despite the Scout Association opening up almost 13,000 places, thanks to the 2,600 new adult volunteers, this year's waiting list has actually risen to more than 33,000 with nearly 1100 of those in Wales.

This means that Scouting is more popular than ever, with 15,000 additional young people registering their interest in joining the Movement since 31 January 2008.

Banishing the waiting lists in Wales

For every new adult who volunteers, five more young people will have the chance to participate in Scouting. So we only need 220 adults, just 0.009% of Wales' adult population, volunteering to completely wipe out our current waiting list.

Find out more about volunteering for Scouting.