The Freelance Age Demographics Report: Gen Z vs Millennials vs Boomers

By the Jobbers.io Research & Editorial Team · Fact-checked against U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Upwork Research Institute, MBO Partners, and Pew Research Center data · Last updated: July 2026

⚠️ Data & Legal Notice — Please Read Before Citing This Report

This report compiles third-party research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Upwork Research Institute, MBO Partners, and Pew Research Center. These organizations use different survey dates, sample sizes, generational age cutoffs, and definitions of “freelancer” or “independent worker” — so figures from different sources will not always match one another, and some numbers will change as newer surveys are published. This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or business advice. If you plan to cite a statistic from this page in a contract, publication, compliance document, or business decision, please verify the current figure directly with the original source linked in the References section below.

Ask three different research firms “how many people freelance in the U.S.?” and you’ll get three different answers — not because anyone is wrong, but because they’re measuring different things. This report pulls together the most recent, publicly available data on how Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers participate in freelance and independent work, where each generation stands today, and how quickly that’s changing.

Key Findings at a Glance

• By participation rate (the share of each generation that has ever freelanced), Gen Z leads at 52%, followed by Millennials at 44%, Gen X at 30%, and Baby Boomers at 26% (Upwork Freelance Forward, 2023 data).
• By share of today’s freelance workforce, Millennials are still the single largest generation at 34%, with Gen Z close behind and growing fastest — up from 15% in 2022 to 28% in 2025 (MBO Partners, 2025).
• The U.S. government’s narrowest official measure counted 11.9 million independent contractors — 7.4% of total U.S. employment — in July 2023 (BLS, the most recent government survey available).
• Independent contracting becomes more common with age, not less: 11.5% of workers 55 and older were independent contractors in 2023, versus 6.9% of workers 25–54 and just 2.2% of workers 16–24 (BLS).
• The oft-repeated claim that freelancers will make up “more than half the U.S. workforce by 2027” traces back to a 2017 projection and is not supported by newer, more rigorous research — see the methodology section below.

How This Report Defines Each Generation

Generational boundaries aren’t an exact science, and different research firms use slightly different cutoff years. For consistency, this report uses the widely cited Pew Research Center definitions:

Source: Pew Research Center, “Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins.” Note: Upwork’s and MBO Partners’ surveys, cited throughout this report, use very slightly different age cutoffs (typically shifted by a year or two depending on survey date), which is one reason percentages can’t always be compared precisely across sources.

How Many People Actually Freelance? The Numbers Depend on the Definition

Before comparing generations, it’s worth being upfront about a problem that trips up a lot of freelance statistics: there is no single agreed-upon definition of “freelancer,” and the number you get depends heavily on which one you use.

The narrowest, most rigorous measure comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Contingent Worker Supplement, last fielded in July 2023 (the most recent edition; a new round was expected in 2025 but had not been published as of this update). BLS counted 11.9 million independent contractors — defined as independent contractors, consultants, or freelance workers — representing 7.4% of total U.S. employment. That’s up from 6.9% in the previous survey in May 2017. BLS is the only source in this report drawn from a government household survey rather than a private, opt-in survey panel.

A broader measure comes from Upwork’s 2023 Freelance Forward survey (the last edition of that particular series), which found that 38% of the U.S. workforce — about 64 million people — had performed some freelance work in the prior 12 months, contributing an estimated $1.3 trillion in annual earnings. Upwork has since replaced Freelance Forward with a narrower, more specific study: the Future Workforce Index (2025), which found that 28% of U.S. skilled knowledge workers specifically — roughly 20 million people — freelanced in 2024, generating $1.5 trillion in earnings, with full-time freelancers reporting a median income of $85,000. This is a different (and smaller) population than “everyone who’s ever freelanced,” so the two Upwork figures aren’t directly comparable.

The broadest measure comes from MBO Partners’ 2025 State of Independence report (its 15th annual edition), which found that 72.9 million Americans did independent work in some capacity in 2025 — including full-time independents, part-timers, and occasional side-giggers — with 27.6 million working independently full-time.

A note on the “50% of the workforce by 2027” claim: You’ll see this figure repeated across many freelance-statistics roundups. It traces back to a 2017 Upwork/Freelancers Union projection. More recent, narrower research — including Upwork’s own 2025 Future Workforce Index — does not support that trajectory for the near term. Treat it as a legacy forecast rather than a confirmed data point, and check the original source before citing it.

Freelance Participation Rate by Generation

The most detailed generation-by-generation participation data comes from Upwork’s Freelance Forward 2023 survey (fielded via Edelman DXI), which asked working professionals in each generation whether they had performed freelance work. This remains the most complete four-generation breakdown publicly available, though it is now a few years old:

Source: Upwork Research Institute, Freelance Forward 2023.

Who Actually Makes Up Today’s Freelance Workforce?

Participation rate (the table above) answers “how likely is a person in this generation to freelance?” A different — and equally important — question is “what share of all freelancers today belong to each generation?” For that, the most current data comes from MBO Partners’ 2025 State of Independence report, based on a survey of 6,474 U.S. adults fielded in April 2025:

Source: MBO Partners, 2025 State of Independence in America report. Combined, Gen Z and Millennials made up about 62% of the U.S. independent workforce in 2025, up from 59% in 2024 and 52% in 2023.

Gen Z: Freelance-Native, and Growing Fastest

Gen Z is the only generation for whom freelancing was a viable career option from the very start of their working lives — platforms, remote-work tooling, and AI assistants already existed by the time most of them entered the labor force. That shows up clearly in the data: 52% of Gen Z professionals had freelanced as of the 2023 Upwork survey, the highest of any generation, and their share of the overall independent workforce has nearly doubled in three years (15% in 2022 to 28% in 2025, per MBO Partners).

A few other Gen Z-specific patterns worth noting from Upwork’s research:

• 53% of Gen Z freelancers reported working 40+ hours a week across their freelance activity — treating it as a primary career, not a side hustle.
• Among Gen Z freelancers, 39% identified as “Portfolio Careerists” (juggling several concurrent projects or clients), 26% as Independent Consultants, 24% as Moonlighters, 7% as Temporary Gig Workers, and 3% as Company Founders.
• Gen Z freelancers adopted generative AI tools at a higher rate (61%) than Gen Z full-time employees (41%), and higher than any other generational cohort.

Gen Z is also disproportionately represented among younger digital nomads: MBO Partners’ 2025 Digital Nomads report found Gen Z made up 35% of U.S. digital nomads, on track to overtake Millennials (40%) as the largest nomad cohort within the next two to three years.

Millennials: Still the Largest Working Generation of Freelancers

Millennials, now 30–45 years old, remain the backbone of the freelance economy in raw numbers. While their participation rate (44%, per Upwork 2023) is lower than Gen Z’s, Millennials still make up the single largest generational share of the independent workforce today at 34% (MBO Partners, 2025) — a reflection of both their large population and their prime, well-established earning years.

Millennials also skew toward higher-value, more established independent work: many entered the freelance economy during or after the 2008–09 recession and have since built long-term consulting practices, agencies, and specialized service businesses rather than one-off gig work. MBO Partners’ research on digital nomads found Millennials are currently the largest single generation of U.S. nomads at 40%, ahead of Gen Z.

Where Generation X Fits In

Generation X (46–61 in 2026) tends to get less attention in freelance research than the generations on either side of it, but the numbers place Gen X consistently in the middle: a 30% freelance participation rate (Upwork, 2023) and a 27% share of today’s independent workforce (MBO Partners, 2025) — both figures that have held relatively steady over the past several years, in contrast to Gen Z’s rapid growth and Boomers’ gradual decline.

Baby Boomers: Smaller Share, But the Most Committed Independent Contractors

Baby Boomers freelance at the lowest rate of any generation by Upwork’s measure (26%), and their overall share of the independent workforce is shrinking simply because fewer Boomers remain in the labor force each year — MBO Partners put their 2025 share at roughly 11%, and their share of U.S. digital nomads specifically fell from 11% in 2024 to just 6% in 2025 as more Boomers retire fully.

But government data tells an important complementary story: among the Boomers and near-Boomers who are still working, independent contracting is unusually common. BLS’s July 2023 survey found that 11.5% of workers 55 and older were independent contractors, compared with 6.9% of workers 25–54 and just 2.2% of workers 16–24 — and the likelihood keeps climbing with age, reaching 16.9% among workers 65 and older. Put differently: 36% of all independent contractors in the U.S. were 55 or older, compared with just 22% of workers in traditional employment. For many Boomers, independent contracting functions as a bridge between full-time career work and full retirement — a way to keep working on their own terms, often in consulting, real estate, skilled trades, or other fields where deep experience commands a premium.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Participation-rate figures: Upwork Freelance Forward 2023. Workforce-share figures: MBO Partners State of Independence 2025.

What This Means for Businesses and Freelancers Right Now

Two things are true at once in 2026: younger generations are entering freelancing earlier and faster than any generation before them, and older, more experienced freelancers — Gen X and Baby Boomers in particular — remain a meaningful, highly satisfied slice of the independent workforce (BLS found 80.3% of independent contractors overall prefer their arrangement over a traditional job). For businesses hiring across this mix of generations, that means casting a wide net: a Gen Z motion designer, a Millennial fractional consultant, and a Boomer semi-retired engineer might all be the right fit for the same project brief, depending on scope.

One theme comes up repeatedly in freelancer feedback across generations: how much of their earnings a platform’s commission structure eats into. Traditional marketplaces deduct a service fee from every contract, on top of whatever the client pays. That’s one reason a growing number of freelancers — across Gen Z, Millennial, and Boomer cohorts alike — are exploring commission-free alternatives such as jobbers, which doesn’t take a percentage of completed projects. Freelancers use a small number of paid credits to submit proposals, and once a client and freelancer agree to work together, the two sides negotiate payment terms directly rather than having a fixed cut withheld from every invoice. For a business posting a role, or a professional browsing freelance jobs across categories like development, design, writing, and marketing, that structure can add up to a meaningful difference over a year of contracts.

Methodology, Sources & Why the Numbers Sometimes Disagree

This report draws on four primary sources, each with a different methodology:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Contingent Worker Supplement to the Current Population Survey, a nationally representative government household survey of about 60,000 households. Last fielded July 2023; the narrowest and most methodologically rigorous source in this report, but also the least frequently updated (previous editions: 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2017).
• Upwork Research Institute — Freelance Forward (2014–2023, discontinued after the 2023 edition) surveyed a broad definition of “did any freelance work in the past 12 months.” Its successor, the Future Workforce Index (2025), narrows the scope to “skilled knowledge workers” specifically and is not directly comparable to the older series.
• MBO Partners — State of Independence in America, an annual survey now in its 15th year, weighted to reflect U.S. demographics; the most consistent year-over-year source for generational composition of the independent workforce, and the source for the digital-nomad-specific breakdowns cited above.
• Pew Research Center — Used only for generational age-range definitions, not freelance statistics.

Because these organizations survey different populations, in different months, using different definitions of “freelancer,” their headline numbers will not reconcile perfectly — and that’s expected, not an error. We’ve tried to label every figure with its specific source and year throughout this report so you can trace any number back to its origin. If you’re using this data for a legal filing, investor deck, academic citation, or any purpose where precision matters, please pull the current figure directly from the primary source rather than citing this summary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which generation freelances the most, Gen Z or Millennials?

It depends on how you measure it. By participation rate — the share of people in each generation who have freelanced — Gen Z leads at 52%, compared with 44% for Millennials (Upwork Freelance Forward, 2023). But by share of the current freelance workforce, Millennials are still the largest single generation at 34%, with Gen Z close behind and growing fastest, up from 15% in 2022 to 28% in 2025 (MBO Partners, 2025).

Are Baby Boomers freelancing more than they used to?

In relative terms, yes. BLS data show the likelihood of being an independent contractor rises with age: 11.5% of workers 55 and older were independent contractors in July 2023, compared with 6.9% of workers 25–54 and 2.2% of workers 16–24. However, Baby Boomers’ overall share of the total freelance workforce (roughly 11% in 2025, per MBO Partners) is smaller than younger generations, mainly because fewer Boomers remain in the labor force each year as more retire fully.

What percentage of the U.S. workforce is freelance in 2026?

It depends on the definition used. The U.S. government’s narrowest measure (BLS, July 2023) counted 11.9 million independent contractors, or 7.4% of total employment. Upwork’s broader 2023 survey found 38% of the workforce had done some freelance work in the prior year. Upwork’s newer, narrower Future Workforce Index (2025) found 28% of skilled knowledge workers specifically freelanced in 2024. MBO Partners’ broadest measure counted 72.9 million Americans doing independent work in some capacity in 2025.

Will freelancers make up half the U.S. workforce by 2027?

This is a widely repeated claim, but it traces back to a 2017 Upwork/Freelancers Union projection. More recent, narrower research — including Upwork’s own 2025 data — does not support that trajectory in the near term. Treat it as a legacy forecast rather than a confirmed figure, and verify against current primary sources before citing it.

What age range is each generation in 2026?

Using Pew Research Center’s standard definitions: Generation Z is 14–29 (born 1997–2012), Millennials are 30–45 (born 1981–1996), Generation X is 46–61 (born 1965–1980), and Baby Boomers are 62–80 (born 1946–1964).

Do freelancers earn more than traditional employees?

It varies by data source and skill level. Upwork’s Future Workforce Index found full-time skilled freelancers had a median income of $85,000 in 2024, versus $80,000 for full-time employees in the same survey. BLS data, which covers all independent contractors rather than only skilled knowledge workers, found the reverse: full-time independent contractors had lower median weekly earnings ($949) than traditional full-time employees ($1,132) in July 2023. Averages vary widely by industry, skill level, and experience, so neither figure applies evenly across all freelancers.

How can businesses hire freelancers from different generations without paying high platform fees?

Traditional freelance marketplaces typically deduct a commission from every contract on top of what the client pays. Commission-free marketplaces such as Jobbers.io let clients and freelancers agree on project terms directly, without the platform taking a percentage of completed work — an approach that can appeal to freelancers across generations, from Gen Z newcomers to semi-retired Boomer consultants.

References & Further Reading

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements, July 2023
• Upwork Research Institute — Freelance Forward 2023 / Gen Z generational data
• Upwork Research Institute — Future Workforce Index 2025
• MBO Partners — 2025 State of Independence in America Report
• MBO Partners — 2025 Digital Nomads Trends Report
• Pew Research Center — Where Millennials End and Generation Z Begins