Page "Trade union" Paragraph 18

The prevalence of unions in various countries can be assessed using the measure “ union density ”.

The definition of union density is “ the proportion of paid workers who are union members ”.

Thus, union density provides a rough picture of union membership only ; it does not account for the circumstance that in some countries, also many persons under education, many unemployed persons, many retired persons and / or many persons who had to leave work due to occupational injuries may also be union members.

( In some countries, such groups of persons may be strongly motivated to maintain union members if, e. g., educational, unemployment, retirement and / or even disability benefits are in part or totally union-administered.