Chart: Top states for union membership in 2008
In 2008, 29 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 12.4 percent, while 20 states had higher rates, and 1 state had the same rate.
Six states had union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2008, with North Carolina having the lowest rate (3.5 percent). The next lowest rates were recorded in Georgia (3.7 percent), South Carolina (3.9 percent), Virginia (4.1 percent), Texas (4.5 percent) and Louisiana (4.6 percent).
Three states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2008 — New York (24.9 percent), Hawaii (24.3 percent) and Alaska (23.5 percent).
This data on union membership is from the Current Population Survey. Unionization data is for wage and salary workers. Find out more in "Union Members in 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release 09-0095.