Official Statistics

Trade union membership, UK, 1995 to 2025: statistical bulletin

Published 28 May 2026

Headline statistics

As these statistics are primarily based on Labour Force Survey (LFS) data, they have been re-classified as official statistics in development. More details can be found in the accompanying technical information document.

The proportion of UK employees who were trade union members rose from 22.0% in 2024 to 22.4% in 2025.

The number of employees in the UK who were trade union members rose by 192,000 on the year to 6.6 million.

The number of male employees who were union members rose by 153,000 to around 2.9 million in 2025 and the number of female employees who were union members increased by 39,000 to 3.7 million.

Public and private sectors

Trade union membership among employees rose in the private sector by 76,000 on the year to 2.5 million in 2025.

There was a slightly bigger increase in trade union membership among public sector employees of 116,000 to 4.0 million in 2025 driven by an increase in male employee membership of 142,000. The number of female public sector employees who were union members decreased by 26,000 in 2025.

Characteristics

Close to two-thirds (65%) of employee union members have a degree or equivalent or other higher education qualification compared to 52% of non-union employees and 54% of all employees.

Over 4-in-10 (43%) employees who were trade union members had been with their current employer for 10 years or more, compared to under a quarter (24%) of non-union member employees.

Nations and regions

The proportion of employees who were trade union members rose in both England and Scotland in 2025. The biggest increase was of 2.4 percentage points to 29.4% in Scotland, while in England the increase was 0.4 percentage points. The proportion of employees who were trade union members in Wales decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 29.3% and dropped by 1.7 percentage points to 32.4% in Northern Ireland.

Introduction

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is responsible for publishing the statistics on trade union membership. The statistics are published on an annual basis.

Data quality

The statistics published in the trade union membership statistics bulletin are primarily drawn from the LFS. The accreditation for these statistics has been changed to official statistics in development. This accords with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which has changed the accreditation of headline statistics from the LFS to official statistics in development as reduced achieved sample sizes, particularly in the second half of 2023, have led to an increased volatility in LFS estimates.

In line with the ONS, we advise caution when interpreting short-term changes, especially when looking at detailed breakdowns. As set out in ONS’s labour market transformation update, ONS has been carrying out an LFS Recovery Plan initiated in October 2023, which has led to some improvements in achieved sample. The ONS is also working towards the introduction of a Transformed LFS.      

Background

Official government statistics on trade union membership have been collected on a regular basis since 1892 from administrative records. Coverage of the data relates to unions scheduled or listed in Great Britain (and regulated by the Certification Officer) but will include union members from outside the UK as well as union members not in employment.

An annual question on trade union membership was introduced into the Labour Force Survey in 1989 and it has been asked in the fourth quarter (Q4) every year since 1992. Questions on trade union presence were added in 1993, and the question on collective agreements between an employer and a trade union was introduced in 1996. The LFS trade union questions have United Kingdom coverage from 1995 onwards. The publication primarily presents UK statistics for the period 1995 to 2025, with some headline Great Britain statistics going back to 1989. 

The bulletin primarily reports statistics on trade union membership among employees estimated from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). It also reports on:

• trade union membership among those in employment, from the LFS (Tables 1.3a, 1.3b)
• trade union presence in the workplace, from the LFS (Table 1.10, 2.4a and 4.3)
• whether employee’s pay and terms and conditions are directly affected by agreements between the employer and a trade union, from the LFS (Table A18 and A19)
• administrative statistics on trade union membership collected by government (Table 1.1)
• employee jobs where pay is set with reference to an agreement affecting more than one employee (collective agreement) – using data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) (Tables 1.11, 2.4b and 4.4).

Data from ASHE more accurately records the proportion of workers whose pay is set by collective agreements (see Technical Information section for more details). We continue to provide the LFS based data on collective agreement coverage in the annexes of the tables published alongside the bulletin.

The statistics within this bulletin provide a record of collective representation of employees in the UK workforce and how it has changed over time. The information is mainly reported as the proportion of employees that were trade union members (trade union membership density), but some data on membership numbers is included. These estimates are also presented by:

• age
• gender
• ethnicity
• income
• major occupation
• industry
• full and part-time employment
• sector
• nation
• region

The data reported in this bulletin are published in the accompanying spreadsheets.

Conventions

The statistics presented in this bulletin are based on fourth quarter estimates (October to December) from the LFS unless otherwise specified. Members of the armed forces are excluded from analysis. All tables and charts relate to employees (population aged 16 or over in paid employment) or those in employment in the United Kingdom with the exception of those specified in the Long term trends section.

The levels figures presented in the bulletin are rounded to the nearest thousand and the percentage figures to one decimal place. The year-on-year changes reported are calculated on the unrounded data (so may differ slightly from the difference between 2 years calculated from the published tables).

More detailed information on the concepts, methods, and quality of data used in this bulletin is available in the technical information and concepts and definitions sections.

Symbols

The following symbols are used in the accompanying tables:

[u] - unweighted cell response size too low to provide an estimate

[x] - data not available

Weighting

This publication uses the latest available LFS weights for each year for its statistics. The datasets for prior years have not been re-weighted since last year’s publication. Prior to next year’s bulletin, ONS are planning a re-weighting of LFS datasets stretching further back towards 2011, though changes are likely to be marginal beyond the most recent years.

Transformed Labour Force Survey

ONS have been working on a transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) which is an internet first survey with a larger sample of households each quarter. ONS will carry out a readiness assessment in July 2026 in collaboration with the main users of the LFS on whether to move to the TLFS for headline labour market indicators in November 2026. However, ONS currently expect that it is unlikely that in July there will be sufficient evidence in place to assess that the TLFS should replace the LFS in November, and the move is likely to take place in 2027.

The TLFS has been split into 2 surveys: a short 15-minute ‘core’ labour market survey, and a separate cross-sectional ‘plus’ survey which will also collect other data, including on trade union membership. It is expected that TLFS will be able to provide trade union membership data for the United Kingdom. The latest available update at publication can be found in the TLFS update.

Long term and recent trends

In the data tables accompanying this publication, Table 1.1 shows the long-term administrative data of union membership, Table 1.2a shows UK employee union membership levels and Table 1.2b shows UK employee union density levels.

Trade union employee membership levels increased

The latest data shows that in 2025 trade union membership levels among UK employees increased by 192,000 on the year to 6.6 million. This increase in employee membership levels takes employee membership to a similar level as the recent high of 6.6 million in 2020 (Table 1.2a).

The proportion of employees that were union members also increased from 22.0% in 2024 to 22.4% in 2025. The LFS estimates that civilian employee numbers overall rose by around 365,000 in 2025 at a slower rate of growth than that for union membership levels among employees which accounts for the rise in union membership density.^{[footnote 1]}

Union membership has declined in the past 4 decades, though the decline has slowed 

Trade union membership levels as reported by the unions listed in Great Britain reached their peak in 1979 (13.2 million) and declined sharply through the 1980s and early 1990s. From 1996 onwards the rate of decline slowed significantly, with occasional years of slight growth interspersed with the general annual reductions in membership. In 2023 to 2024 unions reported membership at 6.7 million, up slightly on the year but down 15.3% from the 1996 level of 7.9 million.

The trend since 1995 for numbers of employees who are trade union members as estimated from the LFS is similar. However, while there are significant falls in employee membership levels in the late 2000s, 2016 and in the 2 years to 2022 there are also periods of broad stability: between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, and between 2011 and 2015. Overall, between 1995 and 2025 union membership levels fell by 544,000 (7.6%) from 7.1 million to 6.6 million.

Union membership as a proportion of employees has fallen from 32.4% in 1995 to 22.4% in 2025. This is due to overall UK civilian employee numbers rising in the period by around 7.7 million to 29.6 million, while union membership among employees fell.

Union membership rise driven by increase in membership among male employees

Across all employees in 2025, union membership increased notably among male employees, rising by 153,000 to 2.9 million, compared with a smaller increase of 39,000 for female employees, bringing their total to 3.7 million.

This was primarily due to the rise of 142,000 male employee membership in the public sector. Among private sector employees, male membership increased by 11,000.  Membership among female employees in the private sector increased on the year by 65,000, while female employee membership in the public sector decreased by 26,000.

Estimates from the LFS show that trade union membership among public sector employees increased by 116,000 in 2025 to 4.0 million. This was the third consecutive annual increase, and follows more marginal increases in 2024 and 2023 to take public sector employee membership to the highest level recorded since 2010 and slightly above the level shown in 2020. Among private sector employees there was also a smaller increase in union membership of 76,000 to 2.5 million in 2025. This means that despite making up a smaller percentage of total employees, union membership is more heavily concentrated among public sector workers.

The decline in employee membership from 1995 primarily occurred in the private sector

Over the longer-term, union membership among public sector employees has stayed relatively stable compared to those in the private sector, where there has been a steady decline. Total trade union membership in the private sector has declined by 841,000 since 1995, a fall of 25%. Whereas total membership in the public sector has increased by 298,000, an increase of 8%.

LFS estimates show that there was an increase in the proportion of private sector employees that were union members in 2025, and a decrease in the proportion of public sector employees. Union membership density among public sector employees decreased from 49.9% in 2024 to 48.5% in 2025, while among private sector employees it increased from 11.7% to 12.1%.

Whilst the number of public sector employees that are trade union members has increased since 1995, the proportion of public sector employees that are trade union members has fallen by 12.7 percentage points.

The LFS estimates for employees in the public and private sector differ from the Office for National Statistics Public Sector Employment statistical release. The LFS bases its definition of sector according to how individuals define whether the organisation they work for is a private company (private business or limited company) or some other organisation (and if so, what type of organisation, from central government to charity to public limited company to grant funded organisation and the like). The ONS release is based on a survey of public sector employers in accordance with the UK National Accounts sector definitions.

Overall, our estimates using the LFS sector variable have public sector employee numbers at over 8.2 million in 2025. This compares to a 6.0 million figure (excluding the military) for December 2025 from the ONS April 2026 Labour Market release. It is the main public sector industries (predominantly public administration and defence and education) that largely account for the difference between the LFS public sector estimate, and the figures reported in the ONS release.

Figure 1: trade union membership levels among employees in the UK and Great Britain, 1892 to 2025

Source: administrative data on union membership from Department for Employment (1892 to 1973); and the Certification Office (1974 to 2024). Data on employees that are trade union members in the UK and Great Britain is based on the Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Figure 2: Trade union membership levels in the UK, 1995 to 2025

Source: Administrative data on union membership from the Certification Office (1974 to 2024). Data on UK employees that are trade union members is based on the Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

The proportion of male and female employees who are union members has risen on the year

The proportion of female employees who are members of trade unions increased by 0.1 percentage points to 25.2% in 2025, up from 25.1% in 2024. This was accompanied by a rise in the level of UK female employees who were union members, which increased by 39,000 to 3.7 million in 2025. 

Meanwhile, the proportion of UK male employees who were in a trade union in 2025 increased by 0.8 percentage points to 19.6%. Membership levels for male employees increased by 153,000 on the year to 2.9 million in 2025.

The decline in employee membership from 1995 primarily due to falling membership among males.

The decline in the proportion of employees who are trade union members since 1995 has been driven mainly by a sharper fall among male employees. In 1995, around 35% of male employees belonged to a trade union, compared with just below 30% of female employees.

The steeper decline in union membership density among male employees narrowed the gap between males and females. By 2002, the proportion of employees who belonged to a trade union was around 29% for both sexes. These trends have largely continued between 2002 and 2025, with union membership density among male employees falling from 28.7% in 2002 to 19.6% in 2025. Over the same period the proportion of female employees with union membership has remained comparatively stable.

These changes may partly be explained by changes in the nature of the UK labour market since 1995:^{[footnote 2]}

• female employees have increased as a proportion of overall employees
• there has been a substantial decline in the number of employees (and a faster decline in employees who are union members) working in manufacturing, where male employees account for just under three-quarters of the total
• there have been big increases in the number of employees in education and human health and social work, where female employees comprise over 70% of the total. Close to 60% of the increase in the number of female employees was accounted for jobs in these relatively highly unionised industries

Figure 3: percentage of UK employees who are trade union members by gender, 1995 to 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Higher educated employees are more likely to be union members

Higher educated employees are more likely to be union members, with union density at 26.5% for those with a degree and 27.3% for those with other higher education qualifications. This contrasts with employees with lower levels of qualifications, or none; only 15.9% of employees with ‘other qualifications’ were union members (those with qualifications that were not A-Level or GCSE grades A to C equivalent), while 16.1% of employees with no qualifications were union members.

The size of the disparity in trade union membership density between those with higher education qualifications and those with lower level or no qualifications differs substantially between men and women. Among female employees, 31.3% with a degree or equivalent and 32.9% with ‘other higher education’ qualifications were union members, compared to between 16.5% (no qualifications) and 15.0% (‘other qualifications’) a gap of almost 18 percentage points between the highest and lowest densities.

However, among male employees the difference was only around 5.5 percentage points between the 21.2% of those with a ‘degree or equivalent’ qualification and the 15.7% of those with ‘no qualifications’ who are union members. 

Employees in larger workplaces are more likely to have a union presence in their workplace

Employees who worked in larger workplaces (with 50 or more staff) were more likely to be members of a trade union and to have a trade union presence in the workplace (Table 1.10).

In 2025, 28.1% of employees in larger workplaces were union members, with 65.4% having a union presence. In contrast, only 15.2% of employees at smaller workplaces (fewer than 50 employees) were union members, and 31.9% had a union presence.  

The proportions of employees who belong to a trade union were highest in the education sector at 47.4%, followed by public administration and defence (38.9%), human health and social work (36.9%) and transportation and storage (33.2%). Membership density in these industries was significantly higher than membership density across all employees (22.4%).

Similarly, employees in industries with high membership density also had a high proportion of union presence in their workplace (83.0% in education, 81.3% in public administration and defence, and 67.4% in human health and social work). Employees in the utilities industries also have high union presence in their workplaces (water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation at 64.2% and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply at 63.1%).

Northern Ireland was the nation with the highest membership density (32.4%), whereas employees in Scotland had the highest trade union presence in their workplaces (57.0%). Among English regions, employees in Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest union membership density (24.3%, a rate shared with the North East) and had the highest trade union presence in their workplaces at 54.7% (Table 1.10).

Employees working in large workplaces or working in the public sector are more likely to have had pay set by a collective agreement

ASHE ^{[footnote 3]} data on collective agreements are used to provide the primary measure for collective agreement coverage. For 2025, the ASHE data shows that around 39.9% of jobs had pay set with reference to an agreement covering multiple employees (collective agreement). In the public sector around 89.6% of jobs had pay set by such agreements, compared to around 19.5% of jobs in the private sector and 47.6% in the not-for-profit sector. Around 70.3% of public sector jobs and 24.6% of not-for-profit sector jobs had their pay set by national or industry agreements. In contrast, private sector jobs where pay was set with reference to collective agreements were most likely to reference organisational agreements (7.7%) or workplace agreements (6.6%).

Employee jobs in medium and large enterprises of ‘50 to 249’ (16.9%) and ‘250 or more’ (56.2%) employees were more likely to have pay set with reference to a collective agreement in 2025. This compared to 10.5% of employee jobs in micro (1 to 9 employees) employers and 10.0% in small (10 to 49 employees) employers (Table 1.11).

The industries with high union membership density tended to have a higher proportion of employee jobs with pay set with reference to a collective agreement, most notably in public administration and defence (90.5%), and in education (77.1%). The next highest proportion was in health and social work at 60.7% (Table 1.11).

Wales was the nation with the highest proportion of employee jobs with pay set with reference to a collective agreement (53.2%). Among English regions, the highest proportion was in the North East (44.9%) (Table 1.11).

In contrast, LFS estimates suggested that around 26.1% of employees had their pay and conditions of employment directly affected by an agreement between their employer and a trade union: 13.3% of employees in the private sector and 58.7% in the public sector.  As discussed in the accompanying technical information document, one factor in the difference between the LFS and ASHE figures is potentially a lack of awareness among some individuals about how their terms and conditions are set. This is because ASHE is a survey of employers, whereas LFS is a survey of individuals. (Table A18).

Employees in permanent jobs and full-time jobs are more likely to be trade union members

Overall, 22.8% of employees in permanent positions belonged to a trade union in 2025, compared to 15.1% of employees in temporary positions (Table 1.4).

A higher proportion of full-time employees (23.1%) compared to part-time employees (20.3%) had trade union membership in 2025. This trend was reflected across seven of nine major occupation groups, the exceptions being:

• professional occupations (31.3% full-time, 47.4% part-time)
• sales and customer service occupations (12.7% full-time, 14.7% part-time)

Among employees that are trade union members, 77.9% work full-time, higher than among employees overall at 76.0% (Table 3.1).

Higher income earners are more likely to be trade union members

Employees that earn less than £250 per week and employees earning between £250 to £499 per week were less likely to be members of a trade union compared to those with higher incomes (Table 1.5). The proportions of employees who were trade union members by weekly earnings in 2025 were:

• 10.7% of those earning less than £250
• 20.7% of those earning between £250 and £499
• 26.8% of those earning between £500 and £999
• 24.3% of those earning £1,000 and above

Employees in professional occupations are more likely to be trade union members

Those working in professional occupations accounted for 43.6% of employees who were trade union members in 2025, but only 28.2% of UK employees overall, indicating that this occupational group is relatively highly unionised (Table 3.1).

This was reflected in the high proportion of employees in professional occupations that were trade union members in 2025 (33.9%). This was 0.5 percentage points higher than in 2024 (33.4%), and 0.6 percentage points lower than in 2023 (34.5%).

The other occupations which accounted for a higher proportion of employees who were trade union members than employees overall were caring, leisure and other service occupations (11.4% compared to 9.3%) and process, plant and machine operatives (5.7% compared to 5.0%) (Table 3.1).

Female employees had higher union membership proportions in 4 of the 9 occupation groups in 2025: managers, directors and senior officials; professional occupations; caring, leisure and other service occupations; sales and customer service occupations. (Table 1.7c).

Figure 4: trade union density by gender and occupation, 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Employees in public sector and utility industries more likely to be in a trade union

The likelihood of belonging to a trade union varies substantially by sector. Employees in industries with higher proportions of public sector workers are more likely to belong to trade unions, including the public administration and defence and education industries. However, the rate of union membership in many industries has been in sharp decline since 1995.

Within public administration and defence, the proportion of employees belonging to a trade union has fallen by 20.2 percentage points since 1995 and has fallen by 3.4 percentage points in the year to 2025.

Industries such as electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, accommodation and food service activities, real estate activities, administrative and support service activities, education and human health and social work saw rises in union membership density between 2024 and 2025.

‘Other service activities’ and ‘wholesale and retail trade’ were the 2 industries to have experienced growth in union membership density between 1995 and 2025, increasing by 1.4 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.

In line with historical data, education had the highest proportion of employees who were trade union members in 2025 at 47.4%, with public administration and defence following at 38.9% and human health and social work at 36.9%. Outside of the public sector dominated industries, the transportation and storage sector had the highest proportion of employees who were trade union members at 33.2% (Table 1.8).

Figure 5: trade union density by industry, 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Public and private sectors

In the data tables accompanying this publication, tables 2.1a and 2.1b show employee numbers split by union membership and sector, table 2.2 shows union membership density by sector, tables 2.4a and 2.4b cover union presence and collective agreements.

This section is based on analysis of the LFS. Therefore, it differs from the statistics published by the ONS in its Public Sector Employment Release, as discussed in the Long term and recent trends section.

Trade union membership growth driven by public sector increases, with more modest recovery in the private sector

In 2025, the number of public sector employees belonging to a trade union increased by 116,000 on the year to 4.0 million, the third successive annual increase following declines in 2021 and 2022. Public sector trade union membership among employees is at the highest level since 2010, when membership was at 4.1 million. Private sector employee trade union membership levels increased by 76,000, to 2.5 million in 2025. The lowest level was 2.4 million in 2022.

Prior to 2020, union membership levels in the private sector had increased from the previous low of 2.5 million in 2010 to around 2.7 million, partly driven by transfers from the public sector into the private sector. In the public sector, employee membership levels had fallen from 2010 to 2017 by close to 560,000 to 3.5 million before recovering to 4.0 million in 2020.

This contrasted with the previous decade, when there was a steady rise in the public sector membership levels in the 2000s up to 2005, followed by a period of stability until 2010. Public sector membership levels rose by 381,000 between 1995 and 2010. Over the same period, private sector union membership levels declined by 905,000 (Table 2.1a).

Figure 6: Trade union membership levels among employees by sector, 1995 to 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Relatively strong trade union membership in the public sector has been upheld by membership among females. Overall, union membership among public sector female employees has risen by around 503,000 since 1995 to 2.6 million in 2025. This is despite a decline in membership numbers in the early to mid-2010s. Conversely, membership levels among male public sector workers saw generally a downward trend over the period from 1995 to 2025, falling by 205,000 to around 1.4 million.

Whilst total membership levels among female private sector employees have remained broadly steady since 1995, membership among male private sector employees has seen a steep decline, falling by 863,000 to 1.5 million in 2025. The decline was predominantly during the 2000s, with a less sharp downwards trend from 2018.

Figure 7: trade union membership levels among employees by sector and gender, 1995 to 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Trade union density remains higher in the public sector

In 2025, the overall proportion of employees who are members of trade unions continued to be significantly higher in the public sector (48.5%) relative to the private sector (12.1%). Public sector trade union membership density has now been below 50% for four consecutive years, whereas prior to this it had been above 50% since comparable records began in 1995.

The proportion of private sector employees in a union increased from 11.7% in 2024 to 12.1% in 2025.

Trade union membership is higher among female employees in the public sector (49.7% of females compared to 46.4% of males), whereas trade union membership is higher among male employees within the private sector (12.6% of males compared to 11.5% of females) (Table 2.2).

Figure 8: Trade union density by sector, 1995 to 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

The trade union wage premium has increased

The trade union wage premium is defined as the percentage difference between the average gross hourly earnings of employees who are union members and non-members. In 2025, the trade union wage premium increased by 0.5 percentage points to 5.3%. This change is due to an increase in the wage premium in the public sector of 0.3 percentage points due to faster growth in average gross hourly wages for union members. In contrast, private sector growth in average gross hourly wages was similar for union members and non-members, maintaining the marginally negative private sector wage premium (Table 2.3).

Several factors influence this figure, and the size of the premium is likely to be strongly influenced by other differences in the characteristics of unionised and non-unionised employees. It should also be noted that where pay is determined by collective agreements, these are likely to apply to both unionised and non-unionised employees in the bargaining unit (Table 2.4b).

Personal and job characteristics

In the data tables accompanying this publication, Table 3.1 compares the personal and job characteristics of employees who are union members, not union members, and employees overall.

Older employees comprise a higher proportion of trade union members

Older employees make up a larger proportion of trade union members than younger employees (Table 3.1). Of employees who were trade union members in 2025:

• 4.5% were aged between 16 and 24
• 21.4% were aged between 25 and 34
• 37.0% were aged between 35 to 49
• 37.1% were aged 50 or older

That the likelihood of an employee being a trade union member increases with age accords with the data showing that employees who have longer lengths of service with an employer are more likely to be a member of a trade union. 22.4% of employees who were trade union members in 2025 had between 10 and 20 years of service with their employer, while 20.5% had tenure of 20 years or more. These are significantly higher than the percentages comprised of those with less than 1 year and between 1 and 2 years of service at 7.0% and 7.5%, respectively (Table 3.1).

The distribution of trade union membership across age groups has changed since 1995. In 1995, those aged 35 to 49 were the most likely to be trade union members, whereas in 2025 it was those aged 50 or over.

Figure 9: age distribution of trade union members, 1995 and 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Employees with disabilities are more likely to be a member of a trade union

A higher proportion of employees who have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 were members of a trade union in 2025 (27.2%) than employees who do not have a disability, at 21.3% (Table 1.5).

Employees with a disability under the Equality Act 2010 comprised 20.6% of employees who were trade union members in 2025, while accounting for 16.6% of all employees (Table 3.1).

UK-born and Black ethnic group employees are more likely to be union members

UK-born employees are significantly more likely to be a member of a trade union than non-UK born employees. 23.6% of UK-born employees were trade union members in 2025, compared with 18.0% of non-UK born employees (Table 1.5).

The proportion of employees who were trade union members was highest in the Black or Black British ethnic group (26.9%), followed by those with White ethnicity (23.1%). Trade union membership density was lowest among the Chinese or other ethnic group employees, at just 15.2%, with membership density of those in the Asian or Asian British and Mixed ethnicity groups slightly higher at 15.8% and 18.4% respectively. The national average stood at 22.4%.

A higher proportion of female employees than male employees were trade union members in each of the ethnic groups except for the Chinese or other ethnic group. The largest disparity between the proportions of male and female employees who are members of trade unions was within the Asian or Asian British ethnic group, with a difference of 8.1 percentage points, closely followed by the Black or Black British ethnic group at 7.8 percentage points (Table 1.5).

Figure 10: trade union density by gender and ethnicity, 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Over 50% of Black or Black British civilian employees worked in the human health and social work, education or public administration and defence industries in 2025. These industries accounted for over 75% of union members in this ethnic group, compared to two-thirds for employees overall. Within these industries Black or Black British employees had higher union membership density compared to the average across all employees in public administration and defence and slightly higher in human health and social work, with union density in Education for Black or Black British employees lower than that for all employees.^{[footnote 4]}

Foremen or supervisors are more likely to be trade union members

Employees who are foremen or supervisors are more likely to be members of a trade union relative to those more and less senior than them. 31.4% of foremen or supervisors were trade union members, compared to 21.6% of managers and 21.3% of those who are not managers or supervisors (Table 1.5).

Country and regional trends

In the data tables accompanying this publication, Table 4.1 shows trade union membership density in the UK nations and English regions, while Table 4.2 shows their membership levels, for 1995 to 2024. Table 4.3 and Table 4.4 show data for 20 UK regions for 2024.

Trade union membership levels rise in England, Scotland and Wales but fall in Northern Ireland

Trade union membership levels among employees increased slightly in England (by 133,000 to 5.3 million), Scotland (by 59,000 to 683,000) and Wales (by 11,000 to 377,000) between 2024 and 2025. Over the same period, membership levels in Northern Ireland decreased by 11,000 to 252,000 (Table 4.2).

Northern Ireland (32.4%), Wales (29.3%) and Scotland (29.4%) had higher proportions of employees in unions than all the England regions. Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland had much higher trade union membership density relative to England (21.0%) as a whole.

Between 1995 and 2025, amongst the nations, Wales has recorded the largest percentage point fall in the proportion of employees who are trade union members at 15.0 percentage points, followed by Northern Ireland at 9.9 percentage points, then England at 9.8 percentage points. Scotland has had the lowest decrease of 9.5 percentage points (Table 4.1).

In England, employees in the northern regions are more likely to be trade union members

Membership levels in England increased in 2025 with 7 of 9 English regions experiencing increases in employee union membership levels; Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West. The largest increase was in East of England, where employee membership increased by around 62,000 to 560,000, equivalent to a 12.4% increase in membership in the region. Trade union employee membership numbers decreased in 2 of the 9 regions: North East (by 19,000 to 263,000) and North West (by 41,000 to 779,000) (Table 4.2).

In 2025, across England, northern regions had higher proportions of employees who were trade union members compared to southern regions. The North East (24.3%), North West (24.0%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (24.3%), had higher density of trade union membership than other English regions. The East Midlands (21.8%) and West Midlands (22.1%) were also above the England average of 21.0%. Meanwhile London (18.0%), the South East (19.0%), the South West (20.9%) and the East of England (19.5%) were all below the England average (Table 4.1).

Between 2024 and 2025, 2 English regions experienced a decrease in the proportions of employees that were union members, with decreases in the North East (down by 1.3 percentage points) and the North West (down by 1.0 percentage points). Membership density among employees rose across all other English regions with the largest increases in the East of England (+1.4 percentage points) and the West Midlands (+1.0 percentage points).

Figure 11: trade union density by nation and region, 2025

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

Figure 12: Trade union membership as a proportion of employees, by government

Figure 12 shows the proportion of employees who are members of a trade union broken down by 20 geographical regions and nations across the UK in 2025. Northern Ireland had the highest proportions of employees that were trade union members at 32.4%, followed by Strathclyde (31.1%) and Wales (29.3%). Inner London had the lowest proportion of workers affiliated to a trade union at just 17.9%, with Outer London (18.0%) and the South East (19.0%) the next lowest (Table 4.3).

Figure 13: Employees with a trade union presence in their workplace by government office region, percent, 2025

Figure 13 shows the percentage of employees with a trade union presence in the workplace in the 20 geographical regions. Union presence is a measure of whether there are union members at the workplace. Strathclyde had the highest percentage of employees with a trade union presence of 60.9%, followed by Wales at 56.9% and Merseyside and West Yorkshire, both at 56.2%.

Outer London had the lowest rate of employees with a trade union presence in the workplace at 44.2%, followed by inner London and the East of England at 44.8% and 46.9%, respectively. Unsurprisingly, 4 of the regions in the highest 5 for trade union membership are also in the top 5 regions for trade union presence. Similarly, 4 out of the 5 lowest regions for trade union membership are also the lowest 5 regions for trade union presence.

Figure 14: coverage of employee jobs where pay is set with reference to a collective agreement by government office region, 2025

Figure 14 gives an overview of the proportion of employee jobs where pay was set with reference to an agreement affecting more than one employee (collective agreement). This is estimated from data from the ASHE survey. Strathclyde (55.5%) had the highest proportion of employee jobs whose pay was affected by such a collective agreement, followed by Wales at 53.2%. In comparison, Inner London and East of England had the lowest rates at 28.9% and 36.1%, respectively (Table 4.4).

Accompanying tables

The following tables are available in open-source format on the department’s statistical publication:

• Table 1.1 – Trade union membership, unions registered, listed or scheduled in Great Britain, 1892 to 2023 to 2024
• Table 1.2a – Trade union membership levels, employees, UK and Great Britain, 1989 to 2025
• Table 1.2b – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees, UK and Great Britain, 1989 to 2025
• Table 1.3a – Trade union membership levels, in employment, UK and Great Britain,1989 to 2025
• Table 1.3b – Trade union membership as a proportion of those in employment, UK and Great Britain, 1989 to 2025
• Table 1.4 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by gender, full/ part time and permanent/ temporary status, UK, 2025
• Table 1.5 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by personal characteristics, and work and job characteristics, UK, 2025
• Table 1.6 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by age group and gender, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 1.7a – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by major occupation group and gender, UK, 2005 to 2010
• Table 1.7b – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by major occupation group and gender, UK, 2011 to 2020
• Table 1.7c – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by major occupation group and gender, UK, 2021 to 2025
• Table 1.8 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by industry and gender, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 1.9 – Average hourly earnings by union status, UK, 2025
• Table 1.10 – Trade union membership proportions and union presence in the workplace, UK, 2025
• Table 1.11 – Employee jobs where pay is set with reference to an agreement covering more than one employee (collective agreement) by agreement type, UK, 2025
• Table 2.1a – Trade union membership levels by sector and gender, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 2.1b – Trade union non-membership levels by sector and gender, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 2.2 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by sector and gender, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 2.3 – Average hourly earnings by union status and sector, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 2.4a – Trade union presence by sector, UK, 1999 to 2025
• Table 2.4b – Employee jobs where pay is set with reference to an agreement covering more than one employee (collective agreement) by sector, UK, 2005 to 2025
• Table 2.5 – Trade union membership levels by Industry, UK, 1995 to 2025
• Table 3.1 – Characteristics of union members and non-members, UK, 2025
• Table 4.1 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees by nation and region, 1995 to 2025
• Table 4.2 – Trade union membership levels by nation and region, 1995 to 2025
• Table 4.3 – Trade union membership proportions and trade union presence in the workplace by regions, 2025
• Table 4.4 – Employee jobs where pay is determined by reference to an agreement covering more than one employee (collective agreement) by regions, 2025
• A1-A13 – Individual tables for the nations and regions, covering trade union membership as a proportion of employees by various characteristics, 2025  
• A14 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees, by 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification and gender, 1995 to 2025
• A15 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees, by 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification and gender, full/part time and permanent/temporary, 2025
• A16a – Trade union membership as a proportion of Polish national employees in the UK by gender and full/part time status, 2025
• A16b – Trade union membership as a proportion of Polish born employees in the UK by gender and full/part time status, 2025
• A17 – Age distribution of employees who are trade union members, UK, 1995 and 2025
• A18 – Coverage of collective agreements between employers and trade unions by full/ part time and permanent/ temporary status, UK, 2025
• A19 – Coverage of collective agreements between an employer and trade union by sector, UK, 1996 to 2025
• A20 – Trade union membership as a proportion of employees, unitary authorities and local authorities, Great Britain, 2025
• A21 – Median hourly pay excluding overtime, all employees and whether pay is determined with reference to a collective agreement, UK, 2025
• Trade Union Membership Confidence Intervals Tables 2025

Concepts and definitions

Concept	Definition
Employee	Employees are those who are in employment and paid a wage by an employer for the work that they do. People with 2 or more jobs are counted only once.
In employment	The number of people with jobs is measured by the Labour Force Survey and includes people aged 16 or over who did paid work (as an employee or self-employed), those who had a job that they were temporarily away from, those on government-supported training and employment programmes. For this publication, the numbers in employment exclude those doing unpaid family work. People with 2 or more jobs are counted only once.
Labour Force Survey	The main source for information on the labour market in the United Kingdom. It is a random household survey of approximately 35,000 responding households and 78,000 individuals (fourth quarter 2025) conducted every 3 months by the ONS. As well as private households, the survey includes people living in communal establishments (such as student halls of residence, National Health Service accommodation). The survey was conducted once every 2 years between 1973 and 1983 and annually from 1983 until 1991. It has been conducted quarterly since 1992, with a change to calendar quarters from seasonal quarters made in 2006. The LFS is a sample survey and consequently estimates are subject to both sampling and non-sampling error. Due to difficulties collecting data for instance through face-to-face interviewing during the pandemic, the LFS has achieved a lower response rate than previously during this period – and has partly mitigated this impact by increasing the initial sample of households to keep the number of achieved interviews relatively high.
Trade union	The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 defines a trade union as an organisation which consists wholly or mainly of workers of one or more descriptions and whose principal purposes include the regulation of relations between workers and employers or employers’ associations.
Trade union member (LFS)	A person in employment who self-defines that they belong to a trade union or staff association when asked in the LFS
Union density	The rate or proportion of employees or those in employment who are a trade union member. Expressed as a percentage.
Union presence	Whether or not there are trade union or staff association members working at a workplace.  In this publication, this statistic is presented as the proportion of employees who have trade union members (which could include themselves) working at their workplace.
Collective agreement (LFS)	Whether the pay and conditions of employees are directly affected by an agreement between their employer and a trade union.  This is presented as the proportion of employees affected by such an agreement
Occupation	Defined using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC). From 2021, the SOC 2020 is used. Prior to that we have used SOC 2010 for data from 2011 to 2020, and SOC 2000 for earlier data.
Industry	Defined using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). SIC 2007 has been used throughout. However, data prior to 2009 was reallocated using the agreed ONS approach from SIC 1992 codes.

Further information

Future updates to these statistics

The next update of these statistics will be in May 2027.

Past trade union membership bulletins

View previous versions of the trade union membership bulletins.

Earlier bulletins and articles can be accessed via the National Archive.

Related statistics

The Certification Officer’s annual reports includes statistics from the annual returns from scheduled and listed trade unions.

Revisions policy

The DBT statistical revisions policy sets out the revisions policy for these statistics, which has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

Uses of these statistics

Trade union membership statistics are used within government to help inform on worker representation within industries and occupations, and to help develop policies on employment relations.

The statistics are also used by non-government organisations such as think tanks, trade unions and employer organisations to analyse union membership and the extent of collective worker representation. 

User engagement

Users are encouraged to provide comments and feedback on how these statistics are used and how well they meet user needs. Comments on any issues relating to this statistical release are welcomed and should be sent to: erdanalysisenquiries@businessandtrade.gov.uk

The DBT statement on statistical public engagement and data standards sets out the department’s commitments on public engagement and data standards as outlined by the Code of Practice for Statistics.

1. Other data sources suggest different changes in employee figures in 2025. HMRC RTI data shows that payrolled employees decreased by around 100,000 in 2025. Workforce Jobs (WFJ) shows a fall of around 25,000 employee jobs in the year to December 2025. Labour market overview, UK - Office for National Statistics. ↩

2. Based on DBT analysis of the Labour Force Survey (excluding employees in the armed forces). ↩

3. ASHE gathers data on collective agreements from a 1% sample of UK employees, achieving around 174,000 responses for 2025, close to the pre-COVID-19 level. ASHE’s query about whether a worker’s pay is determined by a collective agreement encompasses broader criteria than the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and pertains to jobs rather than individuals, acknowledging the possibility of multiple jobs per person. Evidence suggests that the ASHE data more accurately reflect collective bargaining coverage in the UK. ↩

4. DBT analysis of the Labour Force Survey. ↩