Pathfinder Clubs by state

Close your eyes and picture the map of Brazil. Now light up a little bulb everywhere there's a Pathfinder Club — that group of boys and girls aged 10 to 15 who camp, learn knots, earn honors, and serve the community. That would be more than 9,000 lights, shining across all 26 states and the Federal District. In this article, you'll find out how many clubs exist in every corner of the country, which state tops the ranking, and where it all began. Spoiler: your state might hold a bigger story than you think.

🗺️How many Pathfinder Clubs are there in Brazil?

If you're new here: a Pathfinder Club is a group linked to the Seventh-day Adventist Church that brings together young people aged 10 to 15 for outdoor activities, Bible study, and community service. And Brazil is full of them. The Desbravai database, built from public data from the South American Division (SAD, the office that coordinates the Adventist Church in South America), records 9,368 clubs and about 281,000 members as of July 2026.

To put that in perspective: 281,000 people would fill Maracanã Stadium more than three times over. And the best part is that no state is without a club — from the big centers of São Paulo to towns deep in the Amazon, the map's lights are on in all 26 states and the Federal District.

Worldwide, the club exists in more than 160 countries, with about 90,000 clubs, according to the church's official page. Total membership varies by source: the official site cites more than 1.5 million, and an official 2020 article counted 1.7 million — of which 256,000 were in Brazil, more than in any other country. Want more impressive numbers? Check out the numbers behind the movement.

🏆Which state has the most Pathfinder Clubs?

São Paulo takes the crown: it has 1,278 clubs spread across 167 cities, organized into 8 associations. An association is like a "regional office" that oversees the clubs in an area — think of a school district that oversees the schools in your region. The capital city alone has 135 clubs.

But Bahia is nipping at its heels: 1,107 clubs — and, interestingly, spread across more cities than São Paulo (170 versus 167). Salvador alone accounts for 80 clubs. It's proof that the movement isn't just a Southeast Brazil thing: the Northeast is a Pathfinder powerhouse.

The table below shows the states we checked one by one in the database. Every Brazilian state has its own page with a count of clubs, cities, and associations — it's worth visiting yours.

States checked in the Desbravai database (public SAD data, July 2026). All 26 states and the Federal District have their own page at desbravai.com.br/desbravadores/brasil.

🌱Where did Brazil's first clubs begin?

The official answer points south. In 1958, pastor Henry R. Feyrabend arrived from Canada in Santa Catarina — bringing the idea of the club with him. Between 1959 and 1960, he founded 7 clubs in the state. The first was Vigilantes, in Lajeado Baixo, led by Haroldo Fuckner. The full story (and the friendly rivalry over the "first" title) is in which was the first club.

Almost at the same time, in São Paulo, the Pioneiros club was born in Ribeirão Preto, with 23 enrolled youth and director Luiz Roberto Freitas leading the way. In 1961, it was officially recognized by pastor Wilson Sarli. In other words: two different states, the same idea, at nearly the same time — like when two friends come up with the same idea in a group chat without planning it.

What connected it all? In the late 1950s, pastor Jairo T. Araújo prepared a manual on how to organize clubs, which sparked the parallel emergence of clubs in Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul. For most other states, though, documentation of the "first clubs" is thin — almost everything lives in club memories and unofficial pages. The history of Pathfinders in Brazil tells the rest of the story.

🔍How do you find the clubs in your state?

The fastest way: go to the Pathfinder Clubs in Brazil page and pick your state. Every state has a page with the total number of clubs, the cities where they're located, and the associations responsible for them — you can find a club even in a small town you never expected.

The church also runs an official locator, clubes.adventistas.org, where you can search for Pathfinder clubs (and Adventurer clubs, the version for children aged 6 to 9) by country, state, and city.

Found a club near home and got a little nervous? That's normal. We put together a guide on what the first day at club is like so you (or your parents) can show up knowing what to expect.

🧩How are the states organized on the inside?

No club stands "alone" on the map. It works in layers, like a school: the club is the classroom; the association (or mission) is the school, overseeing the clubs in a region; associations group together into unions, which are like networks of schools; and all of them answer to the South American Division, the continent's "head office." The full structure is explained in how the organization works.

That's why large states have several associations. São Paulo has 8. Rio de Janeiro has 3 — Rio Sul Association (190 clubs), Rio Fluminense (117), and Rio de Janeiro (102). When you see your association's initials on the patch on your uniform, that's the layer of the map it represents.

💡What surprises does the map hide?

In the Desbravai database, São Paulo's largest club is Pioneiros da Colina, with 458 members — more people than many entire schools. And the state's oldest club on record? Pioneiros, from 1959. Yes, the very same one from the story above, still on the map today.

Minas Gerais is the most "spread out" state among those we checked: 465 clubs across 236 cities — on average, fewer than 2 clubs per city. Meanwhile, in the battle between capitals, São Paulo (135 clubs) and Rio de Janeiro (132) are locked in a tight rivalry.

And a surprising fact: among clubs with size data in the database, only a small share have more than 60 members. The vast majority are small and mid-sized clubs — meaning the movement is huge overall, but made up of thousands of groups the size of a classroom. Want more records from the Pathfinder world? We have a whole page of Pathfinder records.

🚀What if there's no club near you?

Every state has clubs, but not every city does — yet. If the map is dark in your neighborhood, that could be an invitation. There's an official path to starting a club from scratch, with support from your region's association: the step-by-step is at how to open a Pathfinder Club.

And remember: every one of Brazil's 9,368 clubs started small. Pioneiros of Ribeirão Preto began with 23 youth — today the country has more than a quarter million Pathfinders. If you're between 10 and 15, this is your moment to join (check the club age ranges). The next light on the map could be lit by you.