Who Is Freelancing & How Much? – Truelancer Statistics

Freelancing is a growing profession. The number of freelancers is increasing every day all across the globe. More and more people are realising the exceeding benefits and advantages of freelancing and are actively participating in huge volumes of freelance work.

If you read our previous post The rise of Freelancing in Asia, you will get an idea of just how popular freelancing is, even in developing countries like India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The idea of self-employment, unique identity, huge network and professional freedom is increasingly converting expert professionals into expert freelancers and turning pout new success stories every day.

Hence, speculations and predictions are bound to come up

The first question comes obviously that is freelancing is male dominated or female dominated?

Statistics says that out of the freelancing crowd, 76.6% are males and 23.4% are females. This does indicate a greater inclination in males towards freelancing. But a 23.4% ratio for females is not bad. When compared to the percentage of females in other professions, it is still higher than many like core manufacturing, transport, mechanical engineering etc. Therefore, one can affirm that the balance between males and females in the freelance economy is shifted but still more in equilibrium than other professions.

 

Which Country has the most freelancers?

 

We can see that North America and Europe clearly dominate the freelance globe. This is primarily because these people are the first generations in freelancing. Most of them are well-established freelance firms with a community of freelancers who outsource a bulk of their work at cheaper rates to freelancers in the Asia- Pacific region. Thus, the work volume in Asia Pacific region and the dominating region has an appreciable variance.

We can also infer that freelance opportunities in Asian pacific regions are great as is evident by the recent spike in the number if Indian freelancers as shown below

 

Also, our bit about the work volume will be crystal clear by this infographic

As we can clearly see that Asian Pacific freelancers have an average of 39 work hours per week. That is greater than that of even the dominating continents. This can only be because of the work they are getting as outsourced from the dominating countries like USA and whole of Europe.

This means that the demand for freelancers in India and Asian countries is high and so is the competition as is evident from peaking supplies in the previous curve.

 

The Next Question is about the earning potential in Freelancing

 

The statistics show a good band of hourly income enjoyed by freelancers all across the globe. While those with over 5 years of experience earn anywhere from 60 dollars to 85 dollars an hour while those less experienced start from as high as $44 an hour.

This essentially means that the demand for freelancers is very high. More and more companies are realising how profitable it is to hire freelancers and enjoy services of high-quality expertise without having to incur infrastructural and HR costs. Thus, the market is bubbling with opportunities for freelancers.

 

Finally what future do freelancers project for themselves?

 

One deterministic conclusion of all the stats is the post is confirmed by this infographic. That is the entrepreneurship streak which is evident in freelancing. 37.5% of freelancers see themselves opening a new business in the coming years while 24.4% think about being self-employed as a freelancer itself. Only 8.1% freelancers are thinking about going back to full-time professions.

 

This trend can be attributed to changing ecosphere in the Indian Economy which is increasingly globalising and opening numerous opportunities for the modern Indian youth and workforce. This is one major reason why we are seeing an increasing number of successful startups with unique ideas. It will be very interesting to see how the trends take shape in the time to come. Meanwhile, it is imperative that the forecast for freelancing in India looks bright and sunny.

 

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