Freelancers are self-employed professionals operating within the top three highest-skilled occupational categories (SOC1 to SOC3). This subsection of self-employment includes roles ranging from lawyers and accountants to doctors, scientists, writers, and designers.
Total freelance population
The UK's freelance workforce currently stands at approximately 2.046 million individuals, according to IPSE’s latest research on the overall population.
This figure represents a modest one per cent increase on our findings from 2023, indicating a period of relative stability following more significant decreases to the overall population in previous years.
Freelancers now constitute almost half (49%) of the UK’s entire solo self-employed population (those who do not have any employees and run their own business, operate as a sole trader, or in a partnership) which now stands at 4.199 million.
Historical trend
Self-employment experienced a real boom following the financial crash in 2008, growing by 53% in that period up until 2019. Freelancers were largely behind this significant rise, increasing by 15 per cent between 2014 and 2020 alone, where this group experienced a high of 2.157 million individuals.
The next few years were more turbulent for the sector, with the onset of the pandemic and the introduction of IR35 reforms resulting in around 300,000 less freelancers operating in the UK.
Since then, the total population has rebounded to above 2 million but it remains short of the pre-pandemic high.
Looking to the future
Whilst the total number of freelancers has remained relatively stable at just over 2 million for the past two years, there is renewed hope that the sector could return to year-on-year growth and surpass its pre-pandemic levels.
The significant rise in the number of side hustles in the UK, increasing by 20% in the last year alone to 460,000, is an important development – the hope being that many of these endeavours could become fully fledged freelance businesses in the not too distant future.
Want further insights on the freelance population?
Read our latest research on the sector
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