Did you ever wonder what was the most popular merit badges in Boy Scouting? It did, so I asked the BSA and here is what I learned about the badges earned in 2010:
Ther were 2,056,870 merit badges earned by boy scouts in 2010.
The top 12 badges were all Eagle required.
| Merit Badge | 2010 Number |
| First Aid | 89,694 |
| Swimming | 78,825 |
| Environmental Science | 74,836 |
| Citizenship in the world | 67,483 |
| Citizenship in the Nation | 64,683 |
| Camping | 62,174 |
| Communications | 59,462 |
| Personal Fitness | 58,988 |
| Citizenship in the Community | 58,891 |
| Family Life | 58,767 |
| Personal Management | 56,793 |
The top non-Eagle required merit badge was Rifle Shooting followed by Leatherwork, Fingerprinting, Wood Carving and Archery.
The most popular of the new merit badges was Geocaching with 4,533 badge earned. This was followed by Scouting Heritage (3,814), Scuba Diving (2,962) and Inventing (616).
The least popular merit badge was Fly Fishing with only 475 badges earned in 2010. This beat out the new Inventing (616), American Business (677), American Labor (739) and the canceled and then uncanceled badge Bugling (844) for bottom honors.
