The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest international scout organization and was established in 1922. It has 176 members. These members are national scout organizations that founded WOSM or have subsequently been recognised by WOSM, which collectively have around 43 million participants.
WOSM recognizes only one Scout organization per country. Some countries have several organizations combined as a federation, with different component groups divided on the basis of religion (e.g., France and Denmark), ethnic identification (e.g., Israel), or language (e.g., Belgium). Canada is the only country to have two distinct recognized associations, which are divided by language. About 30 WOSM members are also members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, mostly from Europe and Arab countries.
Ten of these overseas branches of accredited National Scout Organizations are considered "potential members" by the WOSM (marked by *).
In 2020, WOSM listed 25 sovereign countries as potential members. 10 of these were served by oversea branches of WOSM member organizations (see #Countries and territories with Scouting run by overseas branches of WOSM member organizations).
In 2020, WOSM listed five sovereign countries as without Scouting; the list omitted Vatican City, which is also without Scouting.