Britain's 635 Trade Unions had a total membership of 9.88m. at the ond of 1961. Of this total 54.1. pdr cent. were members of the nine lergest unions, a..cording to figures in the Nov. Ministry of Labour Gazette. Trode Union mombership rose by about 62,000 during 1961 and was around 273,000 more then the total at the end of 1959. The number of Trade Unions fell during the year from 654 to 635. These memberships include small numbers in the Irish Republic and in other branches outside the U.K. There is also a certain amount of duplication owing to people being members of morc than one union, but this is regarded as insignificant.
The number of women who arc members of unions rose sharply by 39,000, or 2% during last year and reached just under 2m. The number of male members rose by 23,000, or 0.3 %, to nearly 8m. At the cnd of 1961 thore were 344 unions with fewer than 1,000 members including 286 with less than 500. These 344 smaller unions together accounted for under 1% of the total membership of all the unions, T.U. membership is now at its highest level ever. There was a steady expansion in size between 1953 and 1957, when the total reached °%.81n., but thers: Were drops in 1958 and.1959