Factofly's state of freelancing 2024
How is the Danish freelance industry doing? What worries the general freelancer? What do they earn? And how many hours do they spend working as a freelancer or self-employed?
We've taken the temperature of the Danish freelance scene, and take a look at some of the most interesting insights.
How are Danish freelancers actually doing?
We conducted a survey of Danish freelancers and found that every second freelancer finds the majority of their clients through their network, and about every fifth freelancer has concerns about artificial intelligencewhen it comes to their future as a freelancer.
Here we review the most salient points from the survey and present you with the key figures for freelancing in Denmark in 2024.
(Survey conducted by Factofly in 2024. N = 136)
Freedom first, but money first.
Why do you choose to become a freelancer in the first place?
According to our survey, 62% of respondents chose to become a freelancer because of freedom and flexibility, while second place comes a close second with 15% of respondents choosing the freelance route for greater financial opportunity.
This is hardly new news, as freedom has long been one of the primary drivers of freelancing globally.
But freelancing isn't a walk in the park, where business can be done a few hours a day from a hammock in Bali.
Administration and economic uncertainty stifle job satisfaction
Life as your own boss doesn't come without frustrations, with the two biggest sources by far coming from "financial insecurity" (43%) and "administrative work" (38%).
In fact, more than one in two - 54% to be precise - indicate that they have concerns about finances in relation to their future as a freelancer.
However, this makes sense at the same time, as life as a freelancer can, if nothing else, vary for many in terms of turnover and the financial aspect.
Almost 1 in 5 freelancers feel lonely
A minor but not insignificant item when it comes to freelance frustrations is loneliness.
18% ticked this box, representing a flip side of the free life that doesn't get enough attention in our opinion.
When you say goodbye to the 9-5 life, it's not only work on someone else's terms that you check out from, but also a social community that you then have to reinvent on your own.
On the positive side, the vast majority of freelancers either thrive in their own company or have found a network of like-minded people, but you'd have to be pretty cynical not to take this number seriously.
Hourly rate is still the most popular model
Charging by the hour has long been the easiest way to settle with clients, and it still is. As many as 66% have hourly rates as their preferred model, compared to 32% who use project rates. Value-based pricing, which belongs in the more experienced freelancer's toolbox, only accounts for 1.9%.
Hourly rate is lower for women
One of the more interesting insights from our survey is that male freelancers are generally less educated than female freelancers, yet they seem to get paid more than women on average.
This is also consistent with a study from FreelancerMap in 2023.
52% of the men in our survey have either a short-term higher education, vocational education, upper secondary education or primary education as their highest completed education.
In this education category, the female respondents in the survey are at 20%.
Despite the level of education the average hourly rate is is DKK 630 for men and DKK 493 for women, which is a big difference.
More than half of the male freelancers or self-employed respondents claim to have an expert level of experience, whereas only 38% of the female freelancers surveyed self-assess themselves to be at an expert level.
This could suggest that the hourly rate is determined more by the level of experience rather than the length of training, or that this may simply be based on the correlation between self-confidence and pricing and sales skills.
(Before we take to the streets with pitchforks and torches, it should be noted that the data we are working with here gives us a direction rather than a final conclusion. To be able to talk about statistical significance, the number of respondents should also be slightly larger).
The highest paying type of freelance work
What type of service can you make the most money as a freelancer?
According to our research, you need to offer a total marketing service if you want to get a high hourly rate. Here, the average hourly rate is DKK 981.
Closely followed by freelancers with an overall marketing service, we find content production and copywriting. Here, the average hourly rate is a whopping DKK 770.
At the other end of the scale is Social Media Management, which according to the survey is the "lowest" paid type of freelance work, with an average hourly rate of DKK 350.
Overall, however, the survey shows that the majority, 49.2% of respondents, are satisfied or very satisfied with their current income level.
Work-life balance is important for freelancers
The big motivation for being a freelancer is widely known to be the opportunity for more freedom and flexibility in life for things other than work, and being able to structure your own working hours.
This is once again confirmed by our survey, with 60% of respondents saying that the most important success criteria for their freelance career is flexible working hours and work-life balance.
This is also reflected in the number of hours that participating freelancers work on average on a weekly basis.
Here, 25% of respondents work between 30-39 hours per week, 21% work 20-29 hours per week, and a whopping 39% work less than 20 hours per week.
Only 11.7% of respondents work more than 40 hours per week on average. This means that a full 60% of survey respondents actually work less than 30 hours per week.
This could suggest that the majority of respondents enjoy the benefit of being able to adjust the number of working hours.
As the majority of people sell their work by the hour, there is of course a natural correlation between income level and hours worked.
Factofly's state of freelancing 2024
How is the Danish freelance industry doing? What worries the general freelancer? What do they earn? And how many hours do they spend working as a freelancer or self-employed?
We've taken the temperature of the Danish freelance scene, and take a look at some of the most interesting insights.
How are Danish freelancers actually doing?
We conducted a survey of Danish freelancers and found that every second freelancer finds the majority of their clients through their network, and about every fifth freelancer has concerns about artificial intelligencewhen it comes to their future as a freelancer.
Here we review the most salient points from the survey and present you with the key figures for freelancing in Denmark in 2024.
(Survey conducted by Factofly in 2024. N = 136)
Freedom first, but money first.
Why do you choose to become a freelancer in the first place?
According to our survey, 62% of respondents chose to become a freelancer because of freedom and flexibility, while second place comes a close second with 15% of respondents choosing the freelance route for greater financial opportunity.
This is hardly new news, as freedom has long been one of the primary drivers of freelancing globally.
But freelancing isn't a walk in the park, where business can be done a few hours a day from a hammock in Bali.
Administration and economic uncertainty stifle job satisfaction
Life as your own boss doesn't come without frustrations, with the two biggest sources by far coming from "financial insecurity" (43%) and "administrative work" (38%).
In fact, more than one in two - 54% to be precise - indicate that they have concerns about finances in relation to their future as a freelancer.
However, this makes sense at the same time, as life as a freelancer can, if nothing else, vary for many in terms of turnover and the financial aspect.
Almost 1 in 5 freelancers feel lonely
A minor but not insignificant item when it comes to freelance frustrations is loneliness.
18% ticked this box, representing a flip side of the free life that doesn't get enough attention in our opinion.
When you say goodbye to the 9-5 life, it's not only work on someone else's terms that you check out from, but also a social community that you then have to reinvent on your own.
On the positive side, the vast majority of freelancers either thrive in their own company or have found a network of like-minded people, but you'd have to be pretty cynical not to take this number seriously.
Hourly rate is still the most popular model
Charging by the hour has long been the easiest way to settle with clients, and it still is. As many as 66% have hourly rates as their preferred model, compared to 32% who use project rates. Value-based pricing, which belongs in the more experienced freelancer's toolbox, only accounts for 1.9%.
Hourly rate is lower for women
One of the more interesting insights from our survey is that male freelancers are generally less educated than female freelancers, yet they seem to get paid more than women on average.
This is also consistent with a study from FreelancerMap in 2023.
52% of the men in our survey have either a short-term higher education, vocational education, upper secondary education or primary education as their highest completed education.
In this education category, the female respondents in the survey are at 20%.
Despite the level of education the average hourly rate is is DKK 630 for men and DKK 493 for women, which is a big difference.
More than half of the male freelancers or self-employed respondents claim to have an expert level of experience, whereas only 38% of the female freelancers surveyed self-assess themselves to be at an expert level.
This could suggest that the hourly rate is determined more by the level of experience rather than the length of training, or that this may simply be based on the correlation between self-confidence and pricing and sales skills.
(Before we take to the streets with pitchforks and torches, it should be noted that the data we are working with here gives us a direction rather than a final conclusion. To be able to talk about statistical significance, the number of respondents should also be slightly larger).
The highest paying type of freelance work
What type of service can you make the most money as a freelancer?
According to our research, you need to offer a total marketing service if you want to get a high hourly rate. Here, the average hourly rate is DKK 981.
Closely followed by freelancers with an overall marketing service, we find content production and copywriting. Here, the average hourly rate is a whopping DKK 770.
At the other end of the scale is Social Media Management, which according to the survey is the "lowest" paid type of freelance work, with an average hourly rate of DKK 350.
Overall, however, the survey shows that the majority, 49.2% of respondents, are satisfied or very satisfied with their current income level.
Work-life balance is important for freelancers
The big motivation for being a freelancer is widely known to be the opportunity for more freedom and flexibility in life for things other than work, and being able to structure your own working hours.
This is once again confirmed by our survey, with 60% of respondents saying that the most important success criteria for their freelance career is flexible working hours and work-life balance.
This is also reflected in the number of hours that participating freelancers work on average on a weekly basis.
Here, 25% of respondents work between 30-39 hours per week, 21% work 20-29 hours per week, and a whopping 39% work less than 20 hours per week.
Only 11.7% of respondents work more than 40 hours per week on average. This means that a full 60% of survey respondents actually work less than 30 hours per week.
This could suggest that the majority of respondents enjoy the benefit of being able to adjust the number of working hours.
As the majority of people sell their work by the hour, there is of course a natural correlation between income level and hours worked.
