In my last post, I analyzed statistics from the 2012 edition of Bloomberg BNA’s Union Membership and Earnings Data Book to find the state with the largest percentage of union members among its population. This time, using the same source, I’m looking for the city that holds the same distinction. Which of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas has the greatest union density?

Well, since we are counting both the private and public sector, and government workers are much more likely to be unionized than their privately-employed counterparts, it makes sense to focus on the cities that have the most government workers—namely, state capitals. Sure enough, of the 10 metro areas that had a union density of about 20 percent or more in 2011, six included state capitals. However, it’s anybody’s guess whether number 10 on this list, Madison, Wis., will hold that position much longer, given the latest news developments.

We might also want to look at cities in the most unionized state—which, as we previously discovered, is New York. Indeed, four New York metro areas made the top 10—including New York City itself, which, despite claiming more than 8 million residents in its metro area, still managed to post a union density of 20.9 percent. Putting these two groups of cities together, it’s easy for us to pinpoint the most unionized: It’s Albany-Schenectady-Troy, home of New York’s state capital. In Albany’s metro area, 35 out of every 100 workers in 2011 was a union member. Buffalo-Niagara Falls finished second with 27.3 percent, followed by Sacramento, Ca., and another New York city, Syracuse.

But what happens if we look only at private-sector workers? Not much, actually: Of the top 10, all of which reported private-sector union densities of 12 percent or more, seven are either state capitals or New York cities—or, in Albany’s case, both. Albany (20.7 percent) and Buffalo (18.3 percent) finish at number one and two again, and the only outsiders to make the top 10 were Toledo, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois.

Note: Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) are based on the U.S. Census definition of the term. Some of larger ones, like New York City, are actually Combined Statistical Areas, which are made up of two or more MSAs.

Additional information about the Union Membership and Earnings Data Book is available here.