The Association of Circus Proprietors trade body has one member in Northern Ireland

AROUND a third of the current Northern Ireland workforce is in a trade union or employers' association - and between them they pay more than £37 million a year in membership fees.

And while broadly unchanged over the last decade, in percentage terms it far eclipses overall UK figures, where just 14 per cent of private sector workers are in unions.

The latest annual report from government-appointed NI Certification Officer Sarah Havlin, who is responsible for overseeing the statutory obligations of Northern Ireland-based trade unions and employers' associations, shows a total membership of 242,988 at the end of December 2015.

That's up 2,177 on a year earlier and represents roughly one in three of the estimated 847,000 people aged over-16 currently in a job.

Individuals living in Northern Ireland who are members of the four locally-based or 79 British trade unions ranges from 44,647 in the north's largest union Nipsa down to just one member of the Leeds Building Society Staff Association (who pays an £18 annual subscription).

Besides Nipsa, the other three Northern Ireland unions and their membership numbers are the Ulster Teachers' Union (6,156), Lough Neagh Fishermen's Association (55) and Belfast Airport Police Association (15).

Those 50,873 members pay combined annual subs of £5,100,358, though the unions do draw income from other sources, and the report also lists their respective expenditure and publishes their year-end assets.

These are effectively war-chests that might be dipped into in the event of members falling on hard times or for dispute resolution.

The total assets for the four Northern Ireland-based unions in the last year was £6.27m for Nipsa, just over £1m for the UTU, £24,347 for the Airport Police group and £2,109 for the Lough Neagh fishermen.

Some 73.8 per cent of all Northern Ireland union members belong to unions in Britain and 5.3 per cent to unions in the Republic.

Northern Ireland membership of the five Republic-based unions was 12,802, with more than half (6,727) belonging to the Irish National Teachers' Organisation. Another 3,642 pay into the former bankers' group IBOA, since renamed the Financial Services Union.

The bulk of Northern Ireland individual workers (178,345) are in the larger GB-based unions including Unite (43,129), Unison (38,994), Usdaw (18,079), the Royal College of Nursing (14,358), the GMB (12,013) and Nasuwt (11,853).

This grouping's annual subscriptions came in at £22.9 million over the year, the Certification Officer's report reveals.

Another 968 people from the north are in smaller unions and pay £155,801 a year.

It includes two people in the British Association of Journalists, three in the National Association of Co-Operative Officials, five in Solidarity, six in the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and eight in the Independent Pilot's Association.

There were nine Northern Ireland employers' associations with 13,162 local members (the Ulster Farmers Union is by far the largest with 11,667 members), whose contributions came in at £4.7 million over the year.

Some 31 GB employer associations draw 2,212 members from the north, who pay £1.8 million in subs.

The biggest of these are the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (649 local members) and Freight Transport Association (390) through to single-memberships of bodies like the National Association of Farriers and Blacksmiths and the Association of Circus Proprietors - thought to be Duffy's Circus.

Unions claim to help workers get together, stop people being treated unfairly and get a better deal from their employers, though UK membership in general has been declining after reforms to minimum wages and workplace discrimination have seemingly reduced the need to be in one.