America’s most iconic youth organizations — the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA — have been jolted by unprecedented one-year drops in membership, due partly to the pandemic, and partly to social trends that have been shrinking their ranks for decades.

While both organizations insist they’ll survive, the dramatic declines raise questions about how effectively they’ll be able to carry out their time-honored missions — teaching skills and teamwork, providing outdoor adventure and encouraging community service.

Membership for the BSA’s flagship Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA programs dropped from 1.97 million in 2019 to 1.12 million in 2020, a 43 percent plunge, according to figures provided to The Associated Press. Court records show membership has fallen further since then, to about 762,000.

The Girl Scouts say their youth membership fell by nearly 30 percent, from about 1.4 million in 2019-20 to just over 1 million this year.

Both groups, like several other U.S. youth organizations, have experienced declining membership for many years. The Girl Scouts reported youth membership of about 2.8 million in 2003. The BSA had more than 4 million boys participating in the 1970s.

Reasons for the drop include competition from sports leagues, a perception by some families that they are old-fashioned and busy family schedules. The pandemic brought a particular challenge.

“One of the biggest problems this past year has been COVID. We haven’t been able to recruit Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts because of it,” said Howland attorney Ned Gold, a lifelong Scout and supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.

Additionally, other organizations, groups and athletic teams also compete for limited time that kids have today.

“You have so many other things they can choose from, and to me, kids are sitting at home playing video games and not getting into the outdoors and mixing with friends,” Gold said. “It’s not just scouting. There is a decline in youth organizations (participation) nationally.”

Gold was speaking by phone from the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The facility, owned by the Boy Scouts of America, spans more than 140,000 acres of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

“Declining numbers are not apparent at the Philmont,” he said. “This summer has more participants than they’ve ever had in their 80-year history.”

He acknowledged, however, that allegations of sexual abuse in the BSA organization may also be affecting membership.

“This is never to diminish the bad that certain people have done to get themselves into scouting, but no organization in this country does as much as scouting to keep the bad people out,” Gold said.

The Scout executive CEO of the Great Lakes Trial Council of the BSA responsible for the scouting and camping programs in Northeastern Ohio, Pat Sherer, agreed that COVID-19 is to blame for for poor recruiting numbers.

“Just coming off COVID, we’re expecting recruitment numbers to bounce back up because we can actually have programs again,” Sherer said. “We will have strong recruiting efforts this fall.”

Like Gold, Sherer, who has been with the BSA for over 30 years, said the increase in activities available to kids, compared to previous decades, can be attributed to lack of new additions.

“There’s a lot more activities compared to the ’70s and ’80s,” he said.

Despite the decrease in recruitment numbers last year, Sherer said the number of new recruits has been generally the same for the last decade.

“Other than this past year, it had been consistent with us recruiting around 2,000 new Scouts per year in the fall,” Sherer said.

Locally, a Youngstown 13-year-old and Boy Scout with Troop 101 in Warren, Marc DelliQuadri, emailed the newspaper expressing his concern with the drop in numbers. He has been a Scout for four years and is worried the plummeting numbers will shut down other local troops.

“Since my troop is fairly large, we are not experiencing any issues with this, but I know many others in different troops that are down to about 10 kids! Without kids in the BSA, it will have to shut down,” DelliQuadri wrote.

“Personally, the BSA has given me multiple once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and I know it can give other kids the same sense of adventure. The BSA has been in our area of Ohio, and the country, for decades. It would be a shame to see camps and troops slowly close down across the country.”

The Boy Scouts’ problems are compounded by their decision to seek bankruptcy protection in February 2020 to cope with thousands of lawsuits filed by men who allege they were molested as youngsters by Scout leaders. The case is proceeding slowly in federal bankruptcy court as lawyers negotiate creation of a trust fund for victims that will likely entail hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from the BSA and its 252 local councils.

To provide those funds, some councils may have to sell cherished camp properties, the BSA’s president and CEO, Roger Mosby, told the AP.

“We understand that this is a difficult and often emotional decision, but in some instances may be a necessary step as we work toward our shared imperatives of equitably compensating survivors and continuing Scouting’s mission.” Mosby said in a written reply to AP’s queries.

The pandemic, the membership drop and rising costs of liability insurance have strained BSA finances. A disclosure statement in the bankruptcy case says its gross revenues dropped from $394 million in 2019 to $187 million last year.

In response, the Boy Scouts’ annual youth membership fee will rise from $66 to $72 on Aug. 1. The BSA also says some councils may merge to consolidate resources.

The Girl Scouts have bureaucratic complications of their own. There is ongoing litigation pitting the national headquarters against two of the 111 local councils– based in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Nashville, Tennessee — which refuse to implement a nationwide technology platform.

Despite the varied challenges, Mosby and other Boy Scout officials, as well as the Girl Scouts’ leadership, say there’s reason for optimism. They say their summer camps are full, special events are sold out, and they’re expecting many thousands of families — some new to scouting, some who left during the pandemic — to sign up now that activities are occurring in-person rather than virtually.

“We knew some girls would take a pause,” said Girl Scouts spokeswoman Kelly Parisi. “But as the pandemic goes in the rear-view mirror, we’ve seen a substantial rebound. … We feel really good going into the fall recruitment.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.