Membership of the Orange Order has fallen by nearly two thirds since 1968 and is now at an all-time low. Orange leaders say that the decline is due to a loss of interest in religious organisations among young people.

In a press release announcing next month’s 18 parades, Robert Saulters, the grand master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland (GOLI), claimed that there were 100,000 members worldwide. But yesterday Drew Nelson, the Order’s grand secretary, confirmed that there were only “about 36,000” members in Ireland, a figure which he said he had been open about in the past.

Internal figures supplied by sources in the Order confirm that membership between 1948 and 2006 has declined. Each Orangeman pays a fixed annual “capitation” to the grand lodge, and membership estimates given to The Sunday Times are calculated using internal records of this income.

In 1948, when the capitation was 3p (1.25p), the number of Orangemen was 76,447. By 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of members is less than half that, 35,758. The capitation fee is now £5.25.

The highest number was 93,447 members in 1968, at the start of the Troubles, when many people joined thinking that the Orange Order would organise defence forces. This fell to 64,160 within a year and has drifted downwards ever since. In 1990, when it was being claimed that there were 100,000 members in Ireland, there were actually only 47,084.

Nelson said that Northern Ireland is becoming a more secular society, in which the Orange Order was seen by some as old-fashioned. “We are an organisation that expects our members to go to church at a time when church attendance is declining,” he said.

Nelson contends that the Orange Order is still a large organisation. “The question is why considerable numbers of young Protestants continue to join an organisation with such traditional values,” he said.

Under unionist-majority rule, membership was an advantage in work and politics. Now many people feel that it could count against them. “In the police you have to notify your employers if you are a member; it is like a notifiable disease,” he said.

“There’s a revival in country areas and there are plans in other parts of the province to see the Order grow again,” said Rev Mervyn Gibson, the grand lodge’s deputy grand chaplain.

The Orange Order was spread through the world by British Army regiments, which had lodges attached to them, as well as by Irish missionaries. There are pockets of support in Ghana and Togo.

Delegates from there, as well as from North America, Australia, Scotland, England and New Zealand, will visit Belfast this year for a meeting of the Imperial Grand Council.