10 Easiest Eagle Required Merit Badges to Get

We have made the list of the easiest Eagle required merit badges to get to help young members of the Boy Scouts of America, to receive the Eagle status and choose the best and the most suitable activities and areas of study.

Each merit badge is awarded for a completed task or test. The purpose of these badges is to motivate boy and girl scouts to learn useful skills that will help them in later life. Most of the skills deal with improving the quality of life and work for them, their family and their scout troop.

After choosing the merit badges, you would like to compete for; you will receive a pamphlet that will explain the whole process of getting the badge, including all the requirements, and actions you will need to take. The pamphlet is printed by the Boy Scout Association of America.

After reading the pamphlet, you will need to contact your Scoutmaster, who will provide you with a blue card. The blue card needs to be signed by the scoutmaster, and it allows you to start working on merit badge tasks. The scout master will also arrange a meeting with an adult counselor, who will inspect each merit badge requirement and decide whether you have shown enough wit, knowledge, and skill to receive a merit badge.

The scouts who satisfy all the requirements are allowed to buy the merit badge patch and patch it to their uniform. Depending on how much merit badges you collect, you can earn higher ranks within the Boy Scout movement. The Eagle Scout is the highest achievement and rank, founded more than one hundred years ago. Each Eagle Scout needs to collect at least 21 merit badges and show a wide variety of other qualities and skills. So if you want to earn an Eagle Scout rank, you will need to work hard, and as the sole motto of this achievement would say, ‘be prepared.’

The Eagle badge recipients are some of the most famous politicians, business people, artists and athletes including President Gerald Ford, the astronaut Neil Armstrong, the famous director Steven Spielberg, and Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the Bloomberg media empire.

Although boy and girl scouts should never take shortcuts, when it comes to learning new skills, sometimes they need to choose the easier areas of study in order to collect all 21 merit badges required for the Eagle status. While making our list of the ten easiest Eagle required merit badges to get, we have focused only on the 13 merit badges that are required for receiving the Eagle status. This information is easily available from the Boy Scout pamphlets or on the Merit Badge. Since we are trying to make the Insider Monkey’s list section more diverse, we are currently writing about a wide variety of subjects. Not a lot of media platforms publish articles for Boy Scouts next to the ones that deal with finance, banking, education, immigration, etc. For example, a recent list of 10 easiest countries to gain citizenship in EU is definitely an article you should read.

The second source we have used for making this list is the BSA Prepared. This troop’s online platform published a unique list of merit badges ranked by their difficulty rating. Apart from the simplicity of getting certain merit badge they have also focused on benefits and the dynamics of the completion process. Since BSA Prepared only uses four difficulty levels, we have also added another source. The Cartoonist rates badges by difficulty, duration and the number of requirements. Now, let’s see the list of easiest Eagle required merit badges to get.

10. Citizenship in the Community

Score: 32 points;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 4 – difficult or very time-consuming badges (10 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);                                                               

No. of requirements: 8+ (-8 points);                                                                                                 

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

To get the Citizenship in the Community merit badge, you will need to organize interviews, school visits and held speeches and public presentations to your fellow students or boy scouts. In addition to this, you will also need to do 8 hours of community work. The most of the requirements for this merit badge can be done on the Government class in your High or Junior High school. This merit badge can be hard to get if you want to learn a lot from it and use your knowledge in later life. On the other hand, if you just want to get the Eagle ranking, you can easily finish all the requirements in three weeks.

9. Citizenship in the Nation

Score: 32 points;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 4 – difficult or very time-consuming badges (10 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 8+ (-8 points);

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

Same as the Citizenship of the Community, this merit badge can be done together with the Government class in both High school and Junior High. Depending on your approach getting the badge can go from medium to highly difficulty. You will need to take some time to thoroughly study the Constitution and organize visits and presentations in your school. You will also need to attend at least 36 hours of classes.

8. Citizenship in the World

Score: 33 points;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 4 – difficult or very time-consuming badges (10 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 7+ (-7 points);

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

Some camps promise that you will be able to finish all the requirements for the Citizenship in the World merit badge, the number 8 on our list of easiest Eagle required merit badges to get, in just one day. Even if this is true, you won’t be able to learn much if you choose to attend these events. The best and the most affordable way to get this badge is to tie it to your Government class. Luckily, the process of getting the Citizenship in the World badge got a little easier after 2006, when its requirements were rewritten. The badge still has a rating that ranges from medium to difficult.

7. Hiking

Score: 33 points;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 4 – difficult or very time-consuming badges (10 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 7 (-7 points);

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

This is one of the few Eagle alternate badges. If a 20-mile hike seems too difficult, you can also opt for cycling or swimming badge instead. The badge allows you to build your credit over time, by attending hiking, tracking and orienteering events. Its purpose is to improve your physical strength and senses and teach you how to create a hike plan and stick to it.

6. Lifesaving

Score: 35 points;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 3 – moderate difficulty (20 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 15+ (-15 points);

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

Getting a swimming badge that ranked 6th on our list of easiest Eagle required merit badges to get, first will help you to get the Lifesaving one more easily. If you are a good swimmer, you won’t have problems with any of these two. The rules for getting Lifesaving badge were updated in 2016. It is a very helpful badge that will give you a useful life-long knowledge. Although the Swimming badge is Eagle required, if you think it is too hard, you can always opt for Emergency Preparedness one instead.

5. Personal Fitness

Score: 36 points;

Difficulty on BSA Prepared: Level 3 – moderate difficulty (20 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 9+ (-9 points);

Duration: 3 months (5 points);

The best benefit of getting the Personal Fitness badge, next in line on our list of easiest Eagle required merit badges to get is that it will get you in shape in no time. That is why this badge is usually recommended for older scouts. If you are not in shape, getting the Personal Fitness badge can be quite daring. You will need to exercise for a long period to prepare for the final tests. On the other hand, if you have already proven your physical strength, you won’t have problems with getting this badge.

4. Family Life

 Score: 38 points;

Difficulty on BSA Prepared: Level 4 – difficult or very time-consuming badges (10 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Easy (30 points);

No. of requirements: 7 (-7 points);

Duration: 3 months (5 points);

The family life badge is one of the easiest Eagle required merit badges to get. Its purpose is to show scouts the importance of families, as the most basic forms of social organizing. The only downside is that the process of getting enough brownie points at home and getting this badge can last very long. Some of the requirements demand the utmost dedication and patience, and you will need more than two months for their completion.

3. Cooking

Score: 42 points;

Difficulty on BSA Prepared: Level 3 – moderate difficulty (20 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 8+ (-8 points);

Duration: 1 to 8 weeks (10 points);

While getting the Cooking merit badge, you will learn the basics of food preparation both at home and outdoors. You will also learn a lot about food safety, special diets, measurements and ingredients preparation. A large part of the cooking process is being done inside the camp. This is traditionally one of the easiest badges to get, although its requirements were doubled in 2002; another update came in 2016.

2. Environmental Science

Score: 44 points;

Difficulty on BSA Prepared: Level 3 – moderate difficulty (20 points);

Difficulty level on Mr.D’s Merit Badge Review: Medium (20 points);

No. of requirements: 6+ (-6 points);

Duration: 1 to 8 weeks (10 points);

One of the most interesting merit badges that require you to work closely with environmental scientists that ranked second on our list of easiest Eagle required merit badges to get. You will conduct measurements and help them with their research. Don’t forget to read all the books and pamphlets because some requirements also involve experiments. You can also get this badge in a summer camp, but make sure that you find a good instructor.

1. Communications

Score 51 point;

Difficulty level on BSA Prepared: Level 3 – moderate difficulty (20 points);

Difficulty level on Mr. D’s Merit Badge Review: Easy (30 points);

No. of requirements: 9 (-9 points);

Duration: 1 to 4 weeks (10 points);

Communications is the winner of our list of the easiest Eagle required merit badges to get. It teaches you how to effectively communicate with other individuals, from online communication to public speaking. You can easily obtain this merit badge at a summer camp. The process of getting this badge can be very fun, especially if you are with the right crowd.