How is the Global Coworking Survey conducted?
The Global Coworking Surveys are conducted online and distributed among coworking spaces around the world.
Are the results in this report representative of the coworking market as a whole?
As with many other markets, the coworking space market is mostly not covered by representative surveys - neither globally nor nationally in most countries. Even on a much smaller scale, a representative survey is seldom successful. You must know 1) all current coworking spaces in your survey area and 2) how to contact them. A small random sample may be sufficient, but it is necessary that 3) all of them respond if they were selected from such a statistical sample. Most surveys fail to meet the three criteria.
When surveys claim to be representative, they are usually not representative but weighted according to some criteria known from the statistical population. However, a random sample can't be replaced by just a few characteristics, like zip code, gender, or age.
In addition, the current population may differ from the known criteria collected in the past. Since coworking spaces can open, close, relocate, or change their business model at any time, the criteria sample would need to be constantly updated, and each database would need to be reevaluated from scratch. Also, there is no legal definition of coworking spaces or mandatory registration body on a global level that collects basic data on this specific market that could be used for weighting purposes. So, long answer short: no.
What do the survey results say and what do they not say?
The Global Coworking Survey is exploratory. The survey results show what the participating coworking spaces (or members) look like and how they work according to many characteristics. Regarding the number of spaces (or members) and the scope of questions asked, no other survey provides such a deep insight into coworking spaces, especially over the long term.
Unlike many other surveys, we also analyze the results by group. This helps to understand the diverse nature of coworking spaces better. Additionally, differences and patterns in the results can reveal potential correlations to specific characteristics.
However, correlation measures have not been calculated as they are not meaningful for most non-scientific readers, and potential patterns are better reflected visually in the graphs.
Any possible correlation also provides no information about who or what is causing them. This would require comparing identical groups that differ in only one characteristic, which is nearly impossible in a field study. There are usually many different characteristics that influence an outcome. These include characteristics that are part of a larger societal or economic policy context, i.e., independent of coworking spaces, and that were not or could not be captured by the survey.
Aren't there too many national differences between countries to present global results?
No, not really. The country or continent of the respondents is just one of many criteria that can influence the results.
Although national differences indeed exist, there are more considerable differences among other criteria. For example, the regional differences within one country are often greater than the national differences between two countries. A coworking space in New York City is likely to have more in common with a coworking space in London, Berlin, or Bangkok than other coworking spaces along the Hudson River outside the metropolis.
In short, there are more enormous differences between small and big coworking spaces, between coworking spaces that operate one location or several locations, or between those that provide a high share of private offices or a high share of open workspaces, and so on… For this reason, the results provided are compared by these criteria and many more.
One major national difference complicates global comparisons: currency.
National currencies change in value relative to each other every second. Conversion to a comparable currency, such as the U.S. dollar, the Euro, or any other currency, requires taking into account the exchange rate at the time the question was asked, which complicates analysis if the survey spans several weeks or even years.
In addition, exchange rates often do not directly consider the cost of living. They also continue to change after the survey is conducted, and readers would have to account for significant changes in a dimension that has nothing to do with the overall coworking market.
For this reason, we rarely collect data that includes currencies. Instead, we collect relative values, which are easier to compare on a global and long-term basis.
Measuring & Separating System:
We like and respect diversity. However, we needed to make the following decisions to avoid repeating "translations" on countless slides.
- Results are shown in the metric system, such as in square meters, if not stated otherwise: e.g. 500 m².
- A comma is used as the decimal separator, except for results based on the Imperial system of units: e.g. 19,5% but 10.7639 ft².
Why does the sum of the results of a single-answer question sometimes differ from 100%?
All results are generally rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, 50,5% and 49,5% are rounded to 51% and 50%, resulting in an apparent total of 101%. However, the actual total is still 100%.
Why are the results often rounded?
What would a result of 46.8% tell you more than a result of 47%? Not much. Unrounded results give the impression of accuracy where there isn't any. We would rather say this result is about half in presentations or articles. However, having 1,6 or 2,4 members per desk makes a difference. These results are rounded to one decimal point.
Arithmetic mean, 5% trimmed mean, median ... Why are average values different?
Reducing a diverse distribution to a single value often does not accurately reflect an entire market. The values presented here are three of dozens of statistical measures, so we keep it simple.
The arithmetic mean is the most common average to report central tendencies. However, it is not robust if it is influenced by outliers, extreme cases that are much larger or smaller than most others. For example, consider an unequal distribution of private wealth, where 10% of the people in your country hold 90% of the country's wealth. If you took the arithmetic mean of those assets per person, the vast majority would see a huge gap between this value and the amount in their bank accounts. So, it would not reflect the reality for most people. The coworking space market is not that unequal yet. However, some coworking spaces (chains) can be identified as outliers and are much larger than most other coworking spaces. Therefore, we highlight the arithmetic mean when presenting limited scales, such as scales from 0-100% or star ratings (1-10).
We prefer the 5% trimmed mean for open, unlimited scales. This value cuts out the highest and lowest 5% of cases, reflecting the average reality much better than the arithmetic mean in those cases. We can also eliminate typos if a respondent accidentally enters too many digits.
The median separates the upper half from the lower half. It is simply the value in the middle.
It is important to note that most of the statistics presented here are grouped into bar charts, reflecting reality better than any average value.
Why are the results of the surveys between 2020 and 2022 not included in the general results of the Global Coworking Survey across the years?
The 2020 European Coworking Survey and the 2021-22 Coworking Trends Survey were conducted in light of the pandemic. These surveys were designed to publish the results much faster in a time of constant change. They included fewer questions and response options.
In addition, the survey design was based on coworking space businesses as a whole, while the Global Coworking Survey focuses on individual coworking space locations. As a result, most questions are not directly comparable.
Furthermore, the 2020 European Coworking Survey, as the name suggests, was focused on Europe only.
Why are 'n.a.' and '0' entries sometimes excluded?
This is a filtering method to exclude entries that either do not make sense, such as coworking spaces with a size of zero square meters, when an alternative response option was given, such as "don't know" or "other", or we exclude entries that the survey meant to categorize as "not available" with the code "-99", but used the code "0" instead. A higher percentage of "n.a." is shown next to the graphs in this report.
About specific topics:
What exactly does "number of inhabitants local to a coworking space" mean?
Participants responded, "How many people live in the city, town, or village where your coworking space is located?" It would be pretty long to write "number of inhabitants of the city, town or village where a coworking space is located"” so we shortened it.
What does 'staff members' exactly mean?
Because not everyone works as an employee, we use the term "staff members" for people who work for a workspace location. Their number includes founders and self-employed operators if they work for their workspace. Participants have responded to the questions: "Please consider full-time equivalents: How many people have worked for your *self-selected workspace term* ... last month?: ... in January 2020, pre-pandemic?:"
What does "requirement of independent coworking space profitability" exactly mean?
Many coworking spaces are still run as sideline businesses, some by operators with other jobs or businesses. Coworking spaces often don't need to be independently profitable in these cases. Instead, the operator's business can benefit from more customers and clients, increase revenue, use a larger office infrastructure, or reduce expenses by renting desks. In other cases, coworking spaces are operated as part of a larger business model, such as in hotels, to increase their other revenue streams.
The examples are numerous, but they often share the common factor that such coworking spaces do not have to be profitable on their own. This criterion is based on the question: "Is your *self-selected workspace term* required to be independently profitable in order to run your entire business successfully?"
What does "cross-profitability with other locations" exactly mean?
Coworking spaces that operate multiple locations may not be able to make a statement about the individual profitability of a single location for various reasons. Respondents representing coworking spaces with multiple locations answered: "Is the profitability linked to other locations you operate?".
What does "members present" exactly mean?
Not all members work in a coworking space every day. To get an average number of present members, we have asked: "And, on average, how many members physically work in your space per business day?"
Here, you can read more…
… about the Global Coworking Survey.
Or drop us a line if you have any more questions: