At IPSE we strive to understand the sector as much as possible through our research programme. Each year we conduct research with Kingston University to understand the demographics of both the overall solo self-employed sector and the highly skilled subset of freelancers. Through this research we also look at changes from the previous year and since 2008, when we released our first report.
In addition to our annual research we also run projects to understand why so many people are choosing to go freelance, how they work and where they work. You can find all of our reports looking at the who, the why and the how of self-employment in the sections below.
There was a 5% drop in self-employment between 2019 and 2020
The solo self-employed contributed an estimated £316 billion to the UK economy in 2020
The number of self-employed men has dropped by 7% since 2019
The key reasons people go freelance are for the flexibility (88%) and control over work (88%) it offers.
This new report looks at the demographic and occupational trends of the solo self-employed sector in the UK in 2020 with a focus on highly skilled freelancers. It highlights some of the key changes over the last year and since 2008. The report was developed using data from the Labour Force Survey extracted by Kingston University.