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Trade union membership statistics

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is responsible, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for publishing the National Statistics on trade union membership.

The latest trade union membership publication (PDF, 513 Kb)  contains annual estimates of trade union densities for employees and all workers from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the fourth quarter of 2010.

Estimates are presented for the proportion of people in employment who are trade union members in both the United Kingdom and Great Britain, and for employees whose pay and conditions are affected by collective agreements. We also provide trade union densities by age, sex, ethnicity, income, full and part-time employment, sector, nation and region.

The 2010 publication (PDF, 513 Kb)  includes the following information

  • Trade union membership levels
  • Historical trade union membership levels from 1892 to 2008/09
  • Maps showing union density, union presence and collective agreements by region

The tables in this publication are also presented as an Excel spreadsheet which includes longer time series data at : BIS - trade union membership statistics 2010 - Excel

(XLS, 310 Kb) Previous trade union membership articles may also be downloaded from the links below.

Trade union membership and labour disputes statistics quality review

BIS (formerly the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) and ONS carried out a Quality Review of trade union membership and labour disputes statistics.

Information on National Statistics, the Labour Market as well as relevant data can be obtained from the ONS website.

Guidance on employment law

BIS guidance on employment rights and responsibilities can be found on the businesslink.gov.uk website for employers and the Directgov website for workers.

 

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