Majorities of Americans see the large reduction in the share of workers represented by unions over the past several decades as a bad thing for both the country and working people in the United States.
Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to measure Americans’ views of the decline in U.S. union membership in recent decades. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,140 adults from Jan. 16 to Jan. 21, 2024.
Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.
- 54% of U.S. adults say the decline has been bad for the country.
- 59% say this has been bad for working people.
The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union has fallen since 1983, when 20.1% of American workers were union members. In 2023, 10.0% of U.S. workers were in a union.
Views about the decline in union membership have changed only modestly since last year, when 58% said it was bad for the country. There has been no change in views about its impact on working people.
There are modest demographic differences in the perceived impacts of the decline in union membership. However, partisan differences are much more pronounced, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 16-21, 2024:
- About seven-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (69%) say the decline in the percentage of workers represented by unions has been very or somewhat bad for the country. About three-quarters (74%) say it has been bad for working people.
- Among Republicans and GOP leaners, 40% say the decline of organized labor has been bad for the country, and 43% say it has been bad for working people.
Demographic differences within the parties
Among Republicans
There are sizable age, educational and income gaps in GOP views about the impact of union membership decline on working people. (The patterns are very similar when it comes to views about its impact on the country.)
- 71% of Republicans ages 65 and older say the decline of unions has been very or somewhat good for working people, compared with 40% of adults under age 40.
- Upper-income Republicans (66%) are more likely than their counterparts in the middle-income (57%) and lower-income (46%) tiers to say this.
- A majority of White Republicans (59%) say the decline of union membership has been at least somewhat good for working people. The sample sizes for Hispanic, Black and Asian Republicans are too small to analyze separately.
Among Democrats
No more than four-in-ten Democrats across demographic groups see the decline in organized labor as good for working people. However, there are some differences by education level, income, and race and ethnicity:
- Democrats without a college degree are 13 percentage points more likely than those with a college degree to say the decline in union membership has been good for working people (30% vs. 17%).
- Democrats with lower incomes (31%) are more likely than middle-income (23%) and upper-income (17%) Democrats to say this.
- White Democrats (18%) are less likely than Black (37%) or Hispanic (32%) Democrats to say the decline in unionization has been good for working people. About a quarter of Asian Democrats (26%) say this.
- There are no substantial differences among Democrats by age.
Ideological differences
While Republicans and Democrats differ greatly on whether these shifts have been good for working people, ideological differences are also evident within both parties.
Among Republicans
A majority of conservative Republicans (60%) say the decline in organized labor membership has been at least somewhat good for working people, including 24% who say this has been very good.
In contrast, moderate and liberal Republicans are split: 47% say this has been at least somewhat good for working people, while 52% say it has been at least somewhat bad.
Among Democrats
Across ideological groups, large majorities of Democrats say the decline in the percentage of workers represented by unions has been bad for working people. But liberal Democrats (85%) are more likely than conservative and moderate Democrats (66%) to say this.
Liberal Democrats are particularly likely to say the decline in organized labor has been very bad for working people: 45% say this, compared with 21% of conservative and moderate Democrats.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Feb. 18, 2022, and updated on April 19, 2023. Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.
