Credit Unions: Your Neighborhood Cooperative

You’re probably getting your hot dogs, American flags, and sparklers ready for Independence Day, but did you know that Friday, July 3rd is International Day of Cooperatives? According to the International Cooperative Alliance, cooperatives (co ops) are businesses owned and run collectively by and for their members.

One common example of a cooperative organization is a credit union. Credit unions are financial institutions where, unlike banks, all members own a share in the overall business. Credit unions do not have external stockholders, and are not accountable to creating profits– this cooperative structure allows credit unions to offer favorable interest rates on loans, and offer cash dividends to members based on the size of their investment.

PolicyMap is celebrating this Day of Cooperatives by updating our credit union locations, from the NCUA. Do successful cooperative financial institutions foster greater wealth in their communities? The map shows the nation’s largest credit unions by dollar amount of shares/deposits, in relation to per capita income.

Tomorrow, be sure to sit back with a cold lemonade and explore the many facets of credit unions while you enjoy your day off. Filter the dataset by credit union type, membership, charter (who is eligible to become a member), loans, employees, assets, and more. Credit unions can be found on PolicyMap in the Lending tab.