In 2024, Hawaii had the highest rate of union membership among its working population, with 26.5 percent being a union member. The least unionized state was South Dakota, with a rate of 2.7 percent.
In 2024, there were around 14.26 million workers who were members of labor unions in the United States. This follows a general decline in union membership and was a decrease from 2023, when there were roughly 14.42 billion union members in the United States.
The share of workers in the United States who are members of labor unions has been on the decline since 1983. While rates of union membership have gotten closer between men and women, the rate of male union membership has declined more drastically than that of women. In 2024, **** percent of working men were union members compared to *** percent of women.
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This study utilizes time-series data from 1897-2005 to explore the positive and negative effects of rivalry between labor unions. Utilizing econometric factors, it also investigates how competition from rival union federations and independent unions affects union density. Variables include counts of pro-labor and pro-management unfair labor practice cases adjudicated by the National Labor Relations Board, competitor union membership ratio and number ratio, the annual percentage change in union density, and the percentage change in the density of AFL/AFL-CIO membership. Other variables include the percentage of United States House members who belong to the Democratic Party, the percentage of popular votes in presidential elections that favored Socialist or Communist parties, core employment and unemployment, the consumer price index (CPI), and the labor union historical periods: Western Labor Union (WLU), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and Change to Win (CTW).
Union membership has been declining since 1983, and reached a historic low in 2024. There was a slight rise in 2020, but this has been attributed to union members being less likely to lose their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, the rate of union membership declined again to 9.9 percent. Despite this constant decline, the number of workers represented by a union increased in 2023.
The United States Department of Labor tells us that "Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."
This database of state-level union membership and coverage from 1983 to 2015 was originally compiled by Barry Hirsch (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University) and David Macpherson (Department of Economics, Trinity University). The database, available at unionstats.com provides private and public sector labor union membership, coverage, and density estimates compiled from the monthly household Current Population Survey (CPS) using BLS methods.
Use of this data requires citation of the following paper which also includes a description of how the database was created: Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, "Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 56, No. 2, January 2003, pp. 349-54. (PDF).
The trade union membership statistics 2023 are Official Statistics in Development that use the Labour Force Survey to provide an estimate of the levels and density of trade union membership for all UK workers. It also covers union presence and collective bargaining.
Estimates are presented by:
The rate of union membership in the United States has been on the decline since 2000 across all races and ethnicities. The Black and African American working population has maintained the highest rates of union membership. Between 2023 and 2024, Asian workers saw the largest increase in the rate of union membership, increasing from *** percent to *** percent. The total number of union members in the United States can be found here.
American poverty research largely neglects labor unions. The authors use individual-level panel data, incorporate both household union membership and state-level union density, and analyze both working poverty and working-aged poverty (among households led by 18- to 64-year-olds). They estimate three-way fixed effects (person, year, and state) and fixed-effects individual slopes models on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), 1976–2015. They exploit the higher quality income data in the Cross-National Equivalent File—an extension of the PSID—to measure relative (50% of median in current year) and anchored (50% of median in 1976) poverty. Both union membership and state union density have statistically and substantively significant negative relationships with relative and anchored working and working-aged poverty. Household union membership and state union density significantly negatively interact, augmenting the poverty-reducing effects of each. Higher state union density spills over to reduce poverty among non-union households, and there is no evidence that higher state union density worsens poverty for non-union households or undermines employment.
In 2024, union membership was highest among those working in the public sector, with around **** percent of local government workers being union members. In the private sector, workers in the transportation and utilities industry had the highest union membership rates, with **** percent of workers in unions.
Amid growing evidence of “unequal democracy” in the United States, labor unions can play a potentially important role by ensuring that low income citizens’ opinions receive more equal consideration when elected officials make policy decisions. To investigate this possibility, I evaluate the relationship between labor union strength and representational equality across the states and find evidence that states with higher levels of union membership weigh citizens’ opinions more equally in the policymaking process. In contrast, there is no relationship between the volume of labor union contributions to political campaigns in a state and the equality of political representation. These findings suggest that labor unions promote greater political equality primarily by mobilizing their working class members to political action and, more broadly, underscore the important role organized labor continues to play in shaping the distribution of political power across American society.
Number of employees by union status, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and gender.
The latest national statistics on trade union membership for the United Kingdom produced by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills were released on 28th April 2011 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
Trade Union Membership 2010 uses the Labour Force Survey to provide an estimate of the density of trade union membership for all UK employees and all UK workers. Additionally, estimates of trade union densities are published for age, gender, ethnicity, income, major occupation, industry, full and part-time employment, sector, nation and region. The report also provides information on union presence in workplaces and whether an employees pay and conditions are affected by collective agreement.
The occupation variable in the LFS was updated in the first quarter (January-March) of 2011. This change will affect some outputs in the 2012 Trade Union Membership publication, which is due for release on Wednesday 25 April.
The update has resulted in a change to two of the broad occupation groups. ‘Managers and senior officials’’ has been replaced by ‘Managers, directors and senior officials’ and ‘Personal service occupations’ has been replaced by ‘Caring, leisure and other service occupations’.
The specific outputs in the publication which will be affected are as follows:
In 2023, union members accounted for 4.3 percent of wage and salary workers in Virginia, compared with 3.7 percent in 2022,the union membership rate for the state was at its peak in 1992, when it averaged 9.3 percent, and at its low point in 2007 and 2022 at 3.7 percent.Nationwide, union members accounted for 10.0 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2023. The rate was little changed from the previous year. Since 1989, when comparable state data became available, union membership rates in Virginia have been below the U.S. average union membership by at least 5 percentage points. Virginia had 176,000 union members in 2023. In addition to these members, another 50,000 wage and salary workers in Virginia were represented by a union on their main job or covered by an employee association or contract while not union members themselves.
The rate of employees represented by unions has been declining since 1983, and reached a historic low in 2023 with 11.2 percent of employees represented. Employees represented by unions are not necessarily union members themselves, rather, their jobs are covered by a union or an employee association contract. The rate of union membership can be found here.
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The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a sample survey of the population 16 years of age and over. The survey is conducted each month by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides comprehensive data on the labor force, the employed, and the unemployed, classified by such characteristics as age, sex, race, family relationship, marital status, occupation, and industry attachment. The information is collected by trained interviewers from a sample of about 60,000 households located in 754 sample areas. These areas are chosen to represent all counties and independent cities in the United States, with coverage in 50 States and the District of Columbia. The data collected are based on the activity or status reported for the calendar week including the 12th of the month. Union data are available for all workers, members of unions and represented by unions, with data available by age, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, sex, occupation, industry, state, and full- or part-time status. Median weekly earnings data are also available for members of unions, represented by unions and non-union with data available by age, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, sex, occupation, industry and full- or part-time status.
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Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Wages and salaries for Private industry workers in All union workers (CIU2020000000510I) from Q1 2001 to Q1 2025 about ECI, salaries, workers, private industries, wages, private, industry, and USA.
Labor unions, or trade unions as they are known in Europe, are organizations formed by workers in order to represent their collective interests, particularly in relation to wages and working conditions. Historically, labor unions emerged during the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century to represent the interests of industrial workers, who flocked to work in factories, mines, and other growing manufacturing enterprises. In most high-income countries, labor unions reached their peak during the post-WWII period, when governments mediated between the interests of labor unions and the owners of capital. With the economic crises of the 1970s, however, the labor movement suffered historic defeats in Europe and North America, with union density declining rapidly in many countries due to a host of pro-market and anti-union policies which have come to be referred to as 'neoliberalism'. Labor unions today In the twenty-first century, labor unions have retreated from their key role in national economic decisions in many countries, as globalization has lowered barriers to movement of labor, enabled 'off-shoring' jobs to lower wage countries, and promoted the lowering of labor standards in order to pursue cost competitiveness. In spite of this trend, certain regions still showcase high levels of union density and retain their traditions of unions being involved in determining economic policy. Notably, the Nordic countries make up five of the top six most unionized countries, with Iceland in first place being followed by Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and then Norway.
Other notable trends among the top placed countries are states which have had a historical relationship with communism (often a key driver of the labor movement), such as Cuba, Vietnam, China, and Kazakhstan. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, labor unions and the wider labor movement has become more prominent, as workers have sought to fight for health & safety conditions in the workplace, as well as to combat high inflation related to the pandemic.
Number of employees by union status, provinces, gender, and age group.
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Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Total compensation for Private industry workers in All union workers (CIU2010000000510I) from Q1 2001 to Q1 2025 about ECI, compensation, workers, private industries, private, industry, and USA.
In 2024, Hawaii had the highest rate of union membership among its working population, with 26.5 percent being a union member. The least unionized state was South Dakota, with a rate of 2.7 percent.