New York again had highest union membership rate, South Carolina the lowest, in 2017

The U.S. union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—was unchanged at 10.7 percent in 2017. New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (23.8 percent), while South Carolina continued to have the lowest (2.6 percent).

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Chart Data Union membership rates in each state, 2017 annual averages State Union membership rate Number of employed union members Alabama 7.4% 138,000 Alaska 18.1 55,000 Arizona 4.0 111,000 Arkansas 5.1 62,000 California 15.5 2,491,000 Colorado 9.6 238,000 Connecticut 16.9 278,000 Delaware 10.7 45,000 District of Columbia 9.8 34,000 Florida 5.6 480,000 Georgia 4.0 173,000 Hawaii 21.3 129,000 Idaho 4.8 35,000 Illinois 15.0 827,000 Indiana 8.9 266,000 Iowa 7.0 104,000 Kansas 7.8 101,000 Kentucky 9.6 174,000 Louisiana 4.4 78,000 Maine 11.4 66,000 Maryland 10.8 299,000 Massachusetts 12.4 401,000 Michigan 15.6 658,000 Minnesota 15.2 411,000 Mississippi 5.3 59,000 Missouri 8.7 226,000 Montana 11.9 50,000 Nebraska 8.2 70,000 Nevada 12.7 164,000 New Hampshire 11.3 72,000 New Jersey 16.2 630,000 New Mexico 6.7 52,000 New York 23.8 2,017,000 North Carolina 3.4 145,000 North Dakota 5.1 18,000 Ohio 12.5 635,000 Oklahoma 5.5 84,000 Oregon 14.9 262,000 Pennsylvania 12.0 665,000 Rhode Island 16.1 78,000 South Carolina 2.6 52,000 South Dakota 5.4 20,000 Tennessee 5.7 155,000 Texas 4.7 543,000 Utah 3.9 54,000 Vermont 11.0 32,000 Virginia 4.6 176,000 Washington 18.8 584,000 West Virginia 11.0 75,000 Wisconsin 8.3 230,000 Wyoming 6.0 15,000

In 2017, 27 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below the U.S. average, 10.7 percent, while 22 states had rates above it and 1 state had the same rate.

Nine states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2017, with South Carolina having the lowest rate (2.6 percent). The next lowest rates were in North Carolina (3.4 percent) and Utah (3.9 percent). Two states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2017: New York (23.8 percent) and Hawaii (21.3 percent).

State union membership levels reflect both the employment level and the union membership rate. The largest numbers of union members lived in California (2.5 million) and New York (2.0 million). Over half of the 14.8 million union members in the U.S. lived in just seven states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 2.0 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Michigan and Pennsylvania, 0.7 million each; and New Jersey and Ohio, 0.6 million each). These states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "Union Members — 2017" (HTML) (PDF). The numbers exclude all self-employed workers.