In 2011, there were 1,130 coworking spaces with 43,000 members. In 2017, coworking membership will top one million in an estimated 13,800 spaces around the world, according to the first results of the 2017 Global Coworking Survey, which is open to current and former coworking space owners, operators, and members until December 16.
The over 10x growth in coworking spaces is one of many eye-opening findings in the preliminary results:
- 71% of coworking space members collaborated with other members in the last six months
- Of these collaborations, 76% collaborated on small tasks and 11% formed a company or new business
- On average a coworking space members talks with 5.2 other members per day and 56% say almost all or many members know their first name. This is down from 66% in 2015
- 34% of members found their space by word of mouth, 23% found it by Internet search
- 78% of spaces use community building to attract new members
- 96% of operators use Facebook for to present or promote their space, followed by email/newsletter (67%), Twitter (61%), Instagram (58%), and blog or guest posts (41%)
- 41% of coworking spaces are profitable this year, up from 36% 2015
- 23% of coworking spaces were unprofitable this year, which is no change from 2015
- 29% of coworking spaces don’t need to be profitable on their own in order to run the entire business successfully
Once the final results of the survey are released, we’ll have a better picture of the global coworking landscape and the experience of space owners, operators and members. In the meantime, if you are involved or interested in coworking, be sure to take the survey and let your voice be heard.
