Falling membership 


Union density in Finland has fallen by five percentage points over four years, according to figures produced last month by the Finnish ministry of economic affairs and employment. The figures indicate that in 2017, 59.4% of all employees and the unemployed were in unions compared with 64.5% in 2013. 


Women are much more likely to be union members than men, with a union density of 66.4% compared with 52.3% for men.


These figures are based on the 1,414,000 union members who are either employees or unemployed. In fact, Finnish unions have just over two million members, as another 630,000 trade unionists are pensioners, students or self-employed.