How do union membership levels affect a country's economic competitiveness? Is there an overall trend? We have compared data from the World Economic Forum's latest Global Competitiveness Report* with data on global union membership density. The average union membership we found was 28.1% of the workforce. Compared to this, the 5 most competitive economies had an average union membership rate of 55.1%. The top 10 had an average unionisation of 37.9%. The top 20 had an average of 37.8%. The top 30 rate was 33%. And the top 40 had an average of 27.3. In other words the pattern is remarkably consistent. The more economically competitive countries are, the higher their unionism membership rate tends to be.
