U.S. union membership rate has fallen since 1980s % ofall U.S. wage and salary workers 16 and older who belong to/are represented by a union
Over the past 35 years, the share of American workers who belong to labor unions has fallen by about half. Union membership peaked in 1954 at nearly 35% of all U.S. workers (excluding the self-employed), but in 2018 the unionization rate was just 10.5%. (The share of workers represented by unions is a bit higher, 11.7%, because about 1.6 million workers who aren’t union members are in jobs covered by a union contract.) The actual number of union members was 14.7 million last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In 2012, union membership hit its lowest point since the current data series began in the early 1980s, falling below 14.4 million, before turning modestly upward.
U.S. union membership rate has fallen  | since 1980s  | % ofall U.S. wage and salary workers 16 and  | older who belong to/are represented by a union  | 25%  | 23.3  | 20.1  | 20  | Representation rate  | 15  | 11.7  | Unionization rate  | 10  | 10.5  | 5  | '83  | 88  | '93  | '98  | '03  | 108  | '13  | '18  | the The 1983-99 private- and public-sector membership  | estimates exclude agricultural workers.  | Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 