Freelance Economy Statistics 2026: Workers, Pay and AI

The World Bank estimates the number of global online gig workers ranges from 154 million to 435 million, accounting for up to 12% of the global labor force. In the US, Upwork’s Future Workforce Index 2026 found that skilled freelancers now represent 38% of U.S. knowledge workers, up from 28% the prior year. These freelance economy statistics cover freelancer counts, earnings, AI, and the largest marketplaces.

Headline counts swing widely with the definition used. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found 11.9 million people who were independent contractors in July 2023, while MBO Partners reports that more than 72 million Americans are now working independently. Both numbers are correct because they measure different populations.

Key Takeaways

• The share of U.S. skilled knowledge workers who freelance rose to 38%, up from 28% the prior year, per Upwork’s two most recent surveys.
• Fiverr’s annual active buyers fell 21.9% to 2.7 million, while annual spend per buyer rose 15.6% to $368.
• Freelancers doing AI work on Upwork earn 34% more per hour than those not incorporating AI.
• A record 5.6 million Independent workers reported earning more than $100,000 in 2025, a nearly 19% increase from 4.7 million in 2024, according to MBO Partners.
• U.S. workers who earn exclusively through freelance work report a median income of $85,000, surpassing their full-time employee counterparts at $80,000.
• More than 72 million Americans work independently, roughly 6 times the 11.9 million independent contractors the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts as their main job.
• London (1,436) had the highest number of businesses per 10,000 adults, and Wales had the lowest business density rate (742) of any UK country.

Editor’s Choice

• Global online gig workers: 154 million to 435 million, per the World Bank.
• U.S. skilled freelancer earnings: a total of $1.5 trillion in 2024.
• UK freelancers: approximately 2.046 million individuals.
• EU platform workers: a 2021 EU analysis counted more than 28 million people, a figure expected to reach 43 million by 2025.
• Upwork gross services volume: $966.4 million, decreased 4% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026.
• Online gig work platforms: 545 online gig work platforms, with workers and clients located in 186 countries.
• UK solo self-employed contribution: £366 billion to the UK economy in 2024.

How Many Freelancers Are There Worldwide?

• Online gig work accounts for up to 12% of the global labor force, by the World Bank’s upper estimate.
• The range is wide because the number varies depending on whether estimates include only registered or active workers, or the time spent doing such work.
• The World Bank combined data science with global surveys in 12 languages to reach workers on non-English and local platforms.
• Close to three-quarters of the platforms are regional or local.
• Demand for online gig workers is rising faster in developing countries than in industrialized countries.
• In the EU alone, European Commission analysis from 2021 found that there are more than 500 digital labour platforms active.

Source: World Bank, Working Without Borders, 2023

Is There a Primary Source for the 1.57 Billion Freelancer Figure?

We could not trace the widely repeated 1.57 billion figure, or the 1.1 billion variant, to a primary publication during research for this update, so neither appears in our tables. The World Bank range is the published benchmark, and it notes that more people are doing online gig work than has been previously estimated.

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About This Data

Figures are compiled from 21 sourced figures: 16 from official and company sources (World Bank, BLS, ONS, DBT, the European Parliament and company results) and 5 from industry research (IPSE and MBO Partners). Sources run from 2023 to September 2026, and only primary or official publications qualify. Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.

U.S. Independent Contractor and Alternative Work Statistics

• In July 2023, 4.3% of workers, 6.9 million people, held contingent jobs as their sole or main job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• In May 2017, the last time the survey was conducted, 3.8% of workers held contingent jobs.
• Independent contractors made up 7.4% of total employment in the same survey.
• Upwork’s survey puts skilled freelancers at more than 1 in 4 (28%) knowledge workers in the U.S., translating to more than 20 million individuals.
• MBO Partners finds that 42% of independents rely on online platforms as their primary way to find work.
• The number of independent content creators jumped 13% in 2025 to 10.1 million, a segment covered in more depth in our creator economy statistics.

The BLS figure counts independent contractors on a person’s sole or main job only, so it sits well below broader survey counts such as MBO Partners’. For hiring and policy questions, treat it as the conservative floor.

Recent Developments

• August 10, 2026: Upwork reported GSV per active client of $5,230, increased 5% year-over-year, for the second quarter of 2026.
• August 10, 2026: Q2 2026 GSV from Upwork Business Plus offering for SMB increased 174% year-over-year.
• July 29, 2026: Fiverr said clients completing $1,000+ projects grew 13% y/y on a trailing twelve-month basis as it moves toward higher-value work.
• July 29, 2026: Fiverr’s revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was $97.8 million, compared to $108.6 million in the second quarter of 2025.
• July 2026: Upwork’s Future Workforce Index 2026 found 58% of full-time employees now say they are considering freelancing, up from 36% the prior year.
• September 2026: The ONS reported decreases of 43,000 (1.0%) in the self-employment jobs component between March 2026 and June 2026.

Share of U.S. Knowledge Workers Who Freelance

• The 2026 Future Workforce Index is based on a survey of 2,400 U.S.-based skilled workers conducted March to April 2026.
• The 2025 edition surveyed 3,000 U.S.-based skilled knowledge workers between December 2024 and February 2025.
• The margin of error is ±1.8% at a 95% confidence level for the 2025 survey.
• In the 2025 survey, only 10% of freelancers want to return to traditional employment.
• Upwork’s marketplace data shows generative AI and creative production work saw 90% year-over-year growth in contract starts.

Worth noting: The jump from 28% to 38% is a 10-point rise between two separate surveys, one of 3,000 and one of 2,400 skilled workers. Different samples mean the change is best read as a strong directional signal rather than a precise count, which fits the broader shift toward remote work adoption.

Freelancer Income and Earnings Statistics

• Upwork estimates skilled freelancers performing knowledge work are fueling the U.S. economy, earning a total of $1.5 trillion in 2024.
• The six-figure threshold sits well above the typical U.S. worker salary of approximately $66,000, per MBO Partners.
• The 2025 count of six-figure independents is an 86% increase from 2020.
• 74% of independents use generative AI to improve productivity and output, per the same MBO Partners study.

What Is the Average Income of a Freelancer?

None of the official statistics used here publish an average for all freelancers. Upwork’s 2025 survey gives the clearest benchmark: U.S. knowledge workers who earn exclusively through freelance work report a median income of $85,000, surpassing their full-time employee counterparts at $80,000. At the top end, MBO Partners counted a record 5.6 million Independent workers who reported earning more than $100,000 annually in 2025.

AI and Freelance Work Statistics

• On Upwork, GSV from AI Strategy & Consulting, an AI-related work sub-category, grew over 50% year-over-year in Q2 2026.
• The Future Workforce Index 2026 describes the early emergence of the “AI Orchestrator”: a professional who connects AI tools to domain expertise, applies human judgment, and turns AI-enabled execution into business outcomes.
• Upwork’s findings show not all AI work is becoming more valuable as usage spreads.

Source: Upwork Future Workforce Index 2026, July 2026

According to Upwork president and CEO Hayden Brown, While lower-complexity work continues to shift toward automation, we are increasingly seeing what is emerging in its place: growing demand for high-value AI talent, more complex projects, and new categories of work across SMB and Enterprise.

Is AI Replacing Freelancers?

The data points to AI squeezing simple tasks rather than replacing freelancers outright. Upwork’s research suggests lower-complexity AI execution may become less lucrative as it scales, while complex AI-augmented work is driving higher earnings and new roles. The wider employment picture sits in our AI job loss data.

Upwork Marketplace Statistics

• Upwork had 763,000 active clients in the second quarter of 2026.
• Revenue decreased 2% year-over-year to $191.7 million.
• GAAP Net income was $25.4 million, a decrease of 22% year-over-year.
• 38% of active clients on Business Plus in Q2 2026 had their first Upwork spend on Business Plus.

Upwork’s marketplace is leaning on larger accounts, with total GSV down while spend per client and Business Plus volume rose. The longer revenue and GSV history is in our Upwork statistics.

Fiverr Marketplace Statistics

• Fiverr’s marketplace revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was $63.1 million, compared to $74.7 million in the second quarter of 2025.
• Its marketplace take rate for the twelve-month period ended June 30, 2026 was 28.0%, compared to 27.6% a year earlier.
• Fiverr generated $13.6 million in free cash flow in the quarter.
• The company describes its strategy as transitioning from a transaction-oriented marketplace toward a trusted work platform for higher-value projects.

By the numbers: Fiverr’s annual active buyers as of June 30, 2026, were 2.7 million, compared to 3.4 million as of June 30, 2025, while annual spend per buyer reached $368. Both big marketplaces now report rising spend per client against falling totals, a mix that rewards freelancers who can win larger projects.

UK Freelancer Population Statistics

• IPSE’s historical trend shows self-employment growing by 53% following the financial crash in 2008 up until 2019.
• UK freelancers reached a high of 2.157 million individuals during the 2014 to 2020 period.
• The pandemic and the introduction of IR35 reforms resulted in around 300,000 fewer freelancers operating in the UK.
• The number of side hustles in the UK has increased by 20% in the past year, with an additional 77,000 side hustles, per IPSE.

Source: IPSE, Self-Employed Landscape 2024

A side hustle can mean anything from weekend contract work to running a passive income app on a spare device, so the category is broader than freelancing proper.

How Many Freelancers Are in the UK?

IPSE puts the UK’s freelance workforce at approximately 2.046 million individuals, a period of relative stability after earlier declines. Freelancers now constitute almost half (49%) of the UK’s entire solo self-employed population, which now stands at 4.199 million.

UK Freelancer Demographics by Gender

• The number of women has increased by 65% since 2008, whilst the number of men has increased by 12% over the same timeframe, per IPSE.
• This year, the gender distribution has remained the same as in IPSE’s previous report.
• Working mums now account for 21% of all side hustles, according to IPSE.

Where UK Freelancers Are Based: Business Density by Region

• London (1.042 million) and the South East of England (877,000) had the most private sector businesses, accounting for 34% of the UK business population.
• The North East had the fewest private sector businesses of the English regions (167,000).
• 4.3 million (75%) businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owners at the start of 2025.
• There were 5.0 million private sector businesses in England, 361,000 in Scotland, 194,000 in Wales, and 139,000 in Northern Ireland.

Where Do Most UK Freelancers Live?

The official statistics used here do not count freelancers by region, so business density, where three in four businesses have no employees, is the closest public proxy. On that measure, London (1,436) had the highest number of businesses per 10,000 adults; there were also relatively high rates in the South West (1,163), South East (1,135) and the East of England (1,102).

EU Freelance Economy Statistics: Platform Work

• Rapporteur Elisabetta Gualmini said: “With this directive, up to 40 million platform workers in the EU will have access to fair labour conditions.”
• Under the directive, member states will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the directive into their national legislation after its publication in the Official Journal.
• While most platform workers are formally self-employed, about 5.5 million people may be wrongly classified as self-employed, the problem the directive targets.

Source: European Parliament, citing European Commission analysis, 2024

Freelancer vs Full-Time Employee Attitudes

• Upwork’s 2025 index found 53% of skilled Gen Z workers already freelancing, a group that will comprise 30% of U.S. workers by 2030.
• MBO Partners reports that 36% of traditional employees now report having side gigs.
• Among traditional employees, nearly half worry about job loss, per the same study.

Is Freelancing Still Profitable in 2026?

For skilled workers who freelance full-time, the available data says yes on pay: they report a median income of $85,000, surpassing their full-time employee counterparts at $80,000, and MBO Partners counted a record 5.6 million independent professionals who now earn over $100,000 annually.

Profit now depends on the type of work, with spend moving toward larger, more complex projects. On Upwork, generative AI and creative production work saw per-contract earnings decline 13%, the clearest sign of pressure on simpler tasks.

Conclusion

The freelance economy is large but hard to pin down: the World Bank’s 154 million to 435 million online gig workers sit alongside a U.S. market where skilled freelancers now represent 38% of U.S. knowledge workers, and a UK base of approximately 2.046 million freelancers. The pattern across every source is value over volume: fewer marketplace buyers, bigger projects, and a premium for AI work that needs judgment.

Watch the EU next, where member states must write the platform work directive into national law, and the next Upwork and Fiverr results, which will show whether rising spend per client can offset shrinking buyer counts.