As per the Global Coworking Growth study, there are currently over 19,000+ coworking spaces worldwide and this number is expected to cross over 40,000 by the year 2024.
As the coworking spaces continue to expand, who are the people that leverage the coworking spaces to their benefit? Well, in this blog we are going to answer the exact same question.
To make things simpler, we are going to divide the demographics of coworking space users into four distinct sections, namely: Region, Age, Gender and Sector,
Region
From 19,000+ coworking spaces across the world, nearly 11,000 are from the Asia-Pacific region, making it the world largest coworking region. Which is followed by 5000+ in North America and South America, while there are around 3.000+ coworking spaces in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Here are some quick facts:
- India being the fastest-growing coworking market with over 13 million people estimated to operate out of coworking spaces by the end of 2024.
- Another study reveals the fastest-growing coworking cities across the world:
New Dehli leading the race with a growth rate of 46%, followed by Toronto at 35% and Berlin and Chicago at 31%.
Age
The stereotype for a coworking space is that it is a place where young people go to work and have fun. Well, the fun part is true but the young people part is not entirely true. The median age of male coworkers across the world is around 35 years, up from 33.5 years in 2012. Whereas, most females in a coworking space are in the age group of 25-35. Most people sharing a Coworking space are between the age of between 30-39 years. Though there are a small number of coworkers above age 50. However, the average age is increasing slightly every year.
Sector
Coworking spaces have grown exponentially since their creation in the year 2005 and so has its diversification. Coworking space users come from a broad spectrum of professions. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, hackers, socialists, IT professionals and bankers are all members of the coworking community, even large enterprises have now started using coworking space to leverage the advantages of flexible space-as-a-service and office decentralization. In fact, in one recent study of companies larger than 100 employees, one in seven respondents claimed to be a member of the coworking community.
According to a recent study by Coworker:
- Small-to-medium sized enterprises(SMEs) comprise about 37.93%
- Followed by Startups, with 27.12% of coworking members.
- 16.61% of coworking users are freelancers
- 7.68% are entrepreneurs
- 5.49% are remote workers
- 2.82% are digital nomads and,
- 2.35% are large-scale-corporations
Gender
The coworking spaces are somewhat equally distributed among men and women. The average percentage of women in coworking is between 40-45%. Whereas, the percentage of males working from a coworking space is about 50-55%.
- According to most surveys, there is an increase in the number of female coworkers since the past few years.
- Another study reveals that the percentage of married female members in a coworking space drops, especially in the age group between 30-50. The main reason for this appears to be childcare.
- Most coworking individuals are well educated. Around 85% of them have completed an academic education.
Bottom Line
To wrap it up, the most common demographics of coworking space users are members of SMEs and startup teams with an average age of between 30-35 years.