Freelance Forward
What is it measuring?
This survey counts the number of workers who engaged in any supplemental, temporary, project- or contract-based work at any point in the past 12 months. It also asks a wide range of questions about the outlooks, experiences, satisfaction, and challenges of these workers.
What does it tell us?
In 2023, 38 percent of workers engaged in freelance work in some capacity, representing 64 million people. Since the first iteration of the survey in 2014, this has increased modestly from 34 percent.
How is it collected?
Through an online survey administered by Edelman Intelligence, with 3,000 total respondents including 1,142 freelancers. The sample was intended to be demographically representative.
Who collects it?
Upwork, an online freelancing platform, commissions Edelman Inteligence to conduct the survey.
This survey was known as Freelancing in America and collected in partnership with Freelancers Union, an advocacy organization for freelance workers, from 2014 to 2019.
Considerations
The survey has a particularly broad time frame for engagement in independent work, including any activity that has been done in the past year. It also includes some vague questions, leaving respondents to rely on their own interpretations of terms like "full-time." Online surveys, in addition, are unlikely to be fully representative of the population.
How to access this data?
Privately held by Upwork.
Reports
Freelance Forward 2023; 2023; ; Upwork;
Freelance Forward 2022; 2022; ; Upwork;
Freelancing in America: 2019; 2019; ; Freelancers Union and Upwork;