Steve King of Emergent Research released the 2014 to 2018 global Coworking forecast last week at the Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC) in Kansas City.
Coworking Forecast: 1 Million Coworkers in 2018.
The number of global Coworking facilities has been growing quite rapidly over the last 5 years, basically doubling in number each year.
Whilst this growth slowing, we still expect the number of facilities to increase at a very strong average annual growth rate of about 30% over the next 5 years.
This will result in over 12,000 global Coworking spaces operating in 2018.
The number of Coworking members is forecast to grow even faster. The reason is the number of members per Coworking space is increasing is because:
– An increase in home based workers and telecommuters contracting to larger businesses.
– More and more startups utilising the flexibility of Coworking spaces.
– Home based workers wanting to separate home and work.
– Companies are beginning to release the “apron strings” and encourage their employees to work remotely.
– Technology is making it easier to connect to work from remote locations.
– Coworking spaces with high speed internet connection contribute to their members productivity and performance.
There’s the potential to ensure that 1 million people don’t just have a great place to work, but that they are a part of strong, supportive, collaborative communities.
One million people who are tapped into strong support systems and are encouraged to learn with and from one another is something that I hope to contribute to. Coworking spaces have a responsibility to adhere to the core values and to shift the conversation away from our physical space and onto the communities that form within those spaces.
