What’s more American than apple pie? The answer might just be: the credit union.
While the honor of the first credit union goes to Germany, the U.S. is now undoubtedly the home to the largest collection of credit union members worldwide, with over 117 million of the world’s 260 million.
The number of nation-wide credit union members has been growing steadily for decades, but accelerated in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, possibly signalling that consumer trust in traditional banks is waning.
Indeed, one study from 2014 showed that Americans are twice as likely to find a credit union trustworthy as compared to a big, national bank.
What are some differences between credit unions and banks?
One major way that credit unions differ from traditional banks is by being member-owned and not-for-profit. Since a union doesn’t have to maximize earnings for shareholders like a traditional bank, they can often pay a higher interest rate on deposits.
Even within the U.S., credit unions range from small, local unions with fewer than 100 members, to large, multi-state organizations with millions of members. Despite the range in members, this may not translate to the number physical locations available to consumers: big banks typically have more branches than credit unions, many of which are regional.
Our Methodology
To find the largest credit union in each state, we analyzed the quarterly dataset released by the National Credit Union Administration. There’s a number of data-points in the report that could be used to rank the unions–total deposits, the number of branches, the number of credit union members, and so on. We decided to use the last of these, the number of credit union members, and then aggregated the data by state.
Below, you can find the largest credit union in your state, either on the map or in the interactive table.
Name | State | Number of Members | Number of Branches |
Navy Federal Credit Union | Virginia | 8,446,032 | 336 |
State Employees’ | North Carolina | 2,403,404 | 266 |
Boeing Employees | Washington | 1,183,429 | 57 |
The Golden 1 | California | 1,021,799 | 73 |
America First | Utah | 1,021,231 | 128 |
Suncoast | Florida | 826,311 | 68 |
Randolph-Brooks | Texas | 823,790 | 62 |
Digital | Massachusetts | 820,869 | 23 |
Alaska Usa | Alaska | 668,735 | 74 |
Municipal | New York | 588,059 | 22 |
Pennsylvania State Employees | Pennsylvania | 455,685 | 25 |
Alliant | Illinois | 452,560 | 2 |
Redstone | Alabama | 437,238 | 33 |
Delta Community | Georgia | 394,335 | 29 |
Wright-Patt Credit Union, Inc. | Ohio | 386,390 | 32 |
Tinker | Oklahoma | 386,276 | 32 |
Onpoint Community | Oregon | 367,166 | 31 |
Lake Michigan | Michigan | 356,210 | 52 |
Idaho Central | Idaho | 355,950 | 36 |
Connexus | Wisconsin | 347,680 | 11 |
Ent | Colorado | 347,312 | 34 |
Desert Financial | Arizona | 336,544 | 45 |
First Community | Missouri | 323,632 | 37 |
Teachers | Indiana | 300,361 | 54 |
Service | New Hampshire | 277,753 | 51 |
Wings Financial | Minnesota | 268,731 | 28 |
State Employees Cu Of Maryland, Inc | Maryland | 260,786 | 22 |
CommunityAmerica | Kansas | 243,395 | 33 |
Keesler | Mississippi | 233,868 | 32 |
Veridian | Iowa | 229,588 | 31 |
Eastman | Tennessee | 228,017 | 29 |
Founders | South Carolina | 219,484 | 31 |
Nusenda | New Mexico | 202,533 | 19 |
Affinity | New Jersey | 172,847 | 22 |
American Eagle Financial | Connecticut | 146,064 | 18 |
Barksdale | Louisiana | 131,139 | 25 |
HawaiiUSA | Hawaii | 127,458 | 15 |
Pawtucket | Rhode Island | 118,725 | 16 |
Arkansas | Arkansas | 106,680 | 15 |
Commonwealth | Kentucky | 104,553 | 15 |
Centris | Nebraska | 103,044 | 11 |
New England | Vermont | 89,716 | 9 |
Blue | Wyoming | 84,123 | 14 |
One Nevada Credit Union | Nevada | 75,937 | 14 |
Black Hills | South Dakota | 67,359 | 16 |
Del-One | Delaware | 67,197 | 12 |
Whitefish Credit Union Association | Montana | 56,040 | 7 |
First Community | North Dakota | 43,895 | 28 |
Fairmont | West Virginia | 40,963 | 9 |
Town & Country | Maine | 39,059 | 6 |
Data Source: National Credit Union Administration.
Like a credit union, Betterment’s customer centric approach is designed to help you maximize your cash.
Betterment acts as a fiduciary, meaning that we are legally required to act in your financial best interests.
Additionally, Betterment’s investment platform charges based on assets under management, meaning that our products are aligned with our customers’ needs–we do well when our customers’ assets grow.
Betterment also offers other unique cash-management features to help you reach your financial goals. Our cash-analysis tool analyzes your spending pattern in your linked checking account to predict how much cash you will need for the next few weeks.
Our two-way sweep feature will even automate the money-movement process, ensuring that you have cash back in your checking account when you need it.
Leave a Reply