From the comfort of your own home to the sunny shores of LA, where is the best city to become a freelancer? We take a look at the top 10 cities for opportunities and affordability and delve deeper into the rising freelance workforce.
Top Freelancer Cities
Cities were ranked based on a combination of factors including: Number of Freelance Jobs, Average Monthly Salary, Average Rent, Average Broadband Speed, Number of Free WiFi Spots, Number of Coworking Spaces, Avgerage Working Hours per Week
Rank | City | INDEX Score |
---|---|---|
1 | New York City | 6.576 |
2 | Paris | 6.493 |
3 | London | 6.271 |
4 | Seoul | 5.549 |
5 | Hong Kong | 5.314 |
6 | Singapore | 5.233 |
7 | Los Angeles | 5.195 |
8 | Tokyo | 5.159 |
9 | Berlin | 5.025 |
10 | Taipei | 4.948 |
11 | Toronto | 4.902 |
12 | Nice | 4.844 |
13 | Madrid | 4.746 |
14 | Munich | 4.726 |
15 | San Francisco | 4.713 |
16 | Bangkok | 4.709 |
17 | Frankfurt | 4.685 |
18 | Barcelona | 4.664 |
19 | Shanghai | 4.586 |
20 | Beijing | 4.577 |
21 | Budapest | 4.562 |
22 | Delhi | 4.502 |
23 | Moscow | 4.495 |
24 | Amsterdam | 4.461 |
25 | Warsaw | 4.394 |
26 | Melbourne | 4.382 |
27 | Vancouver | 4.369 |
28 | Shenzhen | 4.367 |
29 | Kraków | 4.315 |
30 | Lisbon | 4.307 |
31 | Sydney | 4.274 |
32 | Brussels | 4.265 |
33 | Jakarta | 4.244 |
34 | Miami | 4.241 |
35 | Manila | 4.237 |
36 | Prague | 4.231 |
37 | Guangzhou | 4.231 |
38 | Zürich | 4.225 |
39 | Las Vegas | 4.200 |
40 | Milan | 4.189 |
41 | St. Petersburg | 4.181 |
42 | Vienna | 4.156 |
43 | Rome | 4.143 |
44 | Rio De Janeiro | 4.133 |
45 | Honolulu | 4.124 |
46 | Bucharest | 4.056 |
47 | Orlando | 4.048 |
48 | Mexico City | 3.985 |
49 | Mumbai | 3.957 |
50 | Florence | 3.940 |
51 | Kuala Lumpur | 3.918 |
52 | Istanbul | 3.898 |
53 | Dublin | 3.814 |
54 | Venice | 3.788 |
55 | Buenos Aires | 3.687 |
56 | Chennai | 3.603 |
57 | Lima | 3.245 |
58 | Johannesburg | 3.101 |
59 | Cancún | 3.073 |
60 | Dubai | 3.009 |
61 | Marrakech | 2.948 |
62 | Abu Dhabi | 2.576 |
Countries By Freelancing Population
Countries with the most freelancers per 100,000 people.
Rank | Country | Number of Freelancers (per 100,000) |
---|---|---|
1 | USA | 170 |
2 | Philippines | 150 |
3 | Canada | 110 |
4 | Singapore | 99 |
5 | United Arab Emirates | 98 |
6 | Ireland | 94 |
7 | Romania | 87 |
8 | Australia | 83 |
9 | United Kingdom | 80 |
10 | Portugal | 70 |
11 | Hungary | 44 |
12 | Netherlands | 42 |
13 | Malaysia | 42 |
14 | Egypt | 33 |
15 | Russia | 31 |
16 | Switzerland | 30 |
17 | Belgium | 29 |
18 | Czech Republic | 28 |
19 | Spain | 24 |
20 | Argentina | 24 |
21 | Poland | 23 |
22 | Italy | 23 |
23 | Austria | 23 |
24 | South Africa | 21 |
25 | Morocco | 21 |
26 | France | 19 |
27 | India | 17 |
28 | Germany | 16 |
29 | Turkey | 11 |
30 | Brazil | 10 |
31 | Mexico | 9 |
32 | Vietnam | 8 |
33 | Indonesia | 7 |
34 | Peru | 7 |
35 | Thailand | 6 |
36 | South Korea | 3 |
37 | Japan | 2 |
38 | China | 1 |
Attitudes To Freelancing
This table below looks at people who are already freelancing and compares those who want to keep doing so versus those who’d rather have a salaried job.
Country | Prefer to continue working independently and find more clients (%) | Prefer to quit independent work and find a full-time salaried position (%) |
---|---|---|
Sweden | 58% | 17% |
India | 57% | 32% |
Indonesia | 56% | 15% |
Brazil | 54% | 22% |
Spain | 49% | 19% |
United States | 44% | 19% |
Japan | 44% | 20% |
France | 41% | 32% |
China | 32% | 17% |
United Kingdom | 30% | 21% |
Germany | 29% | 14% |
Additional Resources:
- WordPress Hosting
- Unsecured Business Loans
- Business Bank Accounts
- Business Credit Cards
- Small Business Electricity Rates
- Merchant Cash Advance Providers
- Key Man Insurance
Sources:
- https://www.coworker.com/ – Number of co-working spaces in each country/city
- https://www.peopleperhour.com/ Number of freelancers onsite and working remotely from each country
- https://www.wiman.me – Number of free WiFi hotspots in each city
- https://www.justlanded.com/ – Average number of working hours (Czech Republic)
- http://www.expatfinder.com – Average number of working hours per country
- https://www.numbeo.com/ – Average rent, salary and broadband cost per city
- http://worldpopulationreview.com/ – Population for each country
- https://www.indeed.com – Number of freelancer jobs available in each city
- https://www.upwork.com – Number of freelancer jobs available in each city
- https://www.linkedin.com/ – Number of freelancer jobs available in each city
- https://www.speedtest.net/ – Speed of broadband in each country.
- https://public.tableau.com/ – Number of freelancers per country
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Ankit chauhan says
These statistics are very helpful, Thanks for sharing
Qdesq says
Thanks for sharing these amazing stats. Really found this helpful for my work.