THE GROWTH OF COWORKING WORLDWIDE

Here are a few facts about coworking you might not already know.

In 2005, there was exactly one coworking space in the United States.

Emergent Reseach has compiled a study of coworking spaces around the world.  As of 2016, the number of coworking facilities stands at around 11,000 with 976,000 coworking members worldwide. By the year 2020, this number is expected to increase to just over 26,000 coworking spaces and just over 3.8 million members.

The Harvard Business Review found such staggering benefits to coworking that they decided to study the impact even further. “As researchers who have, for years, studied how employees thrive, we were surprised to discover that people who belong to them (coworking spaces) report levels of thriving that approach an average of 6 on a 7-point scale. This is at least a point higher than the average for employees who do their jobs in regular offices, and something so unheard of that we had to look at the data again

According to HBR “….the people we surveyed reported finding meaning in the fact that they could bring their whole selves to work. They have more job control. And while coworkers value this autonomy, we also learned that they equally value some form of structure in their professional lives. Too much autonomy can actually cripple productivity because people lack routines. Coworkers reported that having a community to work in, helps them create structures and discipline that motivates them. Thus, paradoxically, some limited form of structure enables an optimal degree of control for independent workers. But what matters the most for high levels of thriving is that people who cowork have substantial autonomy and can be themselves at work.”
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