Self-employment rate in the UK 2004-2024

Published by D. Clark, Mar 10, 2025

As of the second quarter of 2024, approximately 13.1 percent of workers in the United Kingdom were self-employed, a significant fall compared with 2019 when the self-employment rate reached a peak of 15.3 percent, just before the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Share of the workforce that are self-employed in the United Kingdom from 4th quarter 2004 to 2nd quarter 2024

CharacteristicShare of workforce that are self-employed
Q2 2024 13.1%
Q1 2024 13.1%
Q4 2023 13.3%
Q3 2023 13.1%
Q2 2023 13.3%
Q1 2023 13.2%
Q4 2022 13.2%
Q3 2022 13.1%
Q2 2022 13%
Q1 2022 13.2%
Q4 2021 13.3%
Q3 2021 13.5%
Q2 2021 13.5%
Showing entries 1 to 13 (79 entries in total)
Created with Highcharts 7.2.2Share of workforce that are self-employedQ4 2004Q2 2005Q4 2005Q2 2006Q4 2006Q2 2007Q4 2007Q2 2008Q4 2008Q2 2009Q4 2009Q2 2010Q4 2010Q2 2011Q4 2011Q2 2012Q4 2012Q2 2013Q4 2013Q2 2014Q4 2014Q2 2015Q4 2015Q2 2016Q4 2016Q2 2017Q4 2017Q2 2018Q4 2018Q2 2019Q4 2019Q2 2020Q4 2020Q2 2021Q4 2021Q2 2022Q4 2022Q2 2023Q4 2023Q2 2024
12.5%13%13.5%14%14.5%15%15.5%

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Release date

2024

Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

Q4 2004 to Q2 2024

Age group

16 years and older

Supplementary notes

This statistic is using original data from the Office for National Statistics and includes copyright material from © Crown, licensed under the Open Government License v3.0.

Data is for the 12 months leading up to the end of relevant quarter (Q1 2021 = April 2020 to March 2021)

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