53 Sharing Economy Statistics in 2022
The sharing economy is the socio-economic model of consumption constructed around the peer-to-peer sharing of goods and services.
Originally, most sharing economy initiatives revolved around the use of under-utilized goods that regular people could lend, rent, sell or exchange with other people.
To do this, agents in the sharing economy use digital technologies such as social media networks and eCommerce platforms. The sharing economy is commonly known as the ‘gig economy’ and the ‘collaborative economy’ too.
Over the years, the sharing economy has spawned many different sectors and corporate entities, backed by venture capitalists. This has transformed the sharing economy from a grassroots movement to mainstream economics and corporate activity.
It’s also a huge profitable trend predicted by 2025 to have grown in excess of 300 million.
In this article, we will share with you key statistics to understand the size, dynamics, trends, and the state of the sharing economy, in all its facets.
Table of contents
Growth in the sharing economy (6) Sharing economy around the world (3) How Covid has affected the sharing economy (7) The state of the “real” sharing economy (4) The state of the gig economy (7) The state of ridesharing (5) The state of “Airbnb” (5) The state of clothes swapping (2) The state of peer-to-peer consumer goods (5) Demographics in the sharing economy (5) Controversies in the sharing economy (3)
The sharing economy sector’s growth
It is generally believed that the sharing economy started around the Great Recession in 2008.
At this time, economic suffering and unemployment coincided with the rise of web 2.0 and social media, enabling people to make economic gain out of under-utilized goods, time, and skills.
The sharing economy has grown exponentially in that time. Here are some statistics to show the incredible rate of growth for most of this period.
1. The sharing economy is forecast to increase earned sales revenue of 15 billion in 2013 to 335 billion by 2025.
This earlier forecast from PwC showed how the rate of growth of the sharing economy was predicted to be over 2,000%.
This huge leap was considered possible taking into account the proliferation of venture capitalist investment in the sector and the rate of internet penetration growth globally.
2. 61% of Americans have used a service from the sharing economy
Such is the popularity of the sharing economy that a large majority of Americans have now used it to receive a service, whether in accommodation, transport, or anything else.
Over 86M American's were projected to use the sharing economy in 2021.
3. 46% of US consumers use diverse sharing economy platforms
Sharing economy statistics can often vary depending on the definition of the scope of the market. In this study by NCBI, they find just under half of Americans use sharing economy platforms.
4. As of 2021, there are at least 59 million gig work employees in the U.S.
And that’s a lot, considering the fact that there were only 38.2 million in 2020. Overall, these workers currently make up over a third of the U.S. workforce.
5. In the UK, 4.4 million people are working for gig economy platforms at least once a week in England, up from 1.37M in 2019.
This figure shows the prevalence of gig work, with just under 15% of the working population regularly engaging in it.
Of course, many gig workers might be combining hours on some of these digital platforms (Deliveroo, Postmates) with more regular jobs or other type of freelance work.
6. Peer-to-peer platforms are expected to grow 28.3% in the next ten years up to 2031
Market research company Transparency Market estimates these figures also signaling growth across the whole of the sharing economy.
Sharing economy around the world
The sharing economy is a global phenomenon with ramifications on every continent. Even if the platforms change, the dynamics are very similar, and so are the rates of penetration.
7. 830 million Chinese consumers have used services from the sharing economy. This includes 84 million people offering their services.
The sharing economy is huge in China. Having leaped technologically straight into smartphones, Chinese are huge fans of everything that is new and exciting, fuelling growth into this sector.
8. 2.5 million Russians generated an income on gigs found online platforms.
Not as popular as in other countries, the gig economy has also found its way to Russia, at least before the invasion of Ukraine.
As of 2021, two and a half million Russians were engaging in gig economy platforms to generate their incomes.
9. 56 percent of millennials in Mexico prefer Airbnb apartments and homes over hotels, according to Americas Market Intelligence
Accommodation sharing is popular in Mexico, with over half of young Mexicans preferring Airbnb stays to hotels.
How Covid has affected the sharing economy
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge, unprecedented impact on the sharing economy, however not a straightforward one to understand.
Sectors of the sharing economy devoted to “getting people out there” such as ridesharing and accommodation plummeted, whilst those helping people “stay in” rose dramatically.
Let’s dive into some statistics to understand this phenomenon.
10. Uber reported an average of 55 million customers each month in the April-June period of 2020, down from 99 million last year. Trip bookings were down 75%.
Ride-sharing was undoubtedly the most affected in the sector economy, as people didn’t have the opportunity to travel and move around as much as they used to.
In 2020, when the pandemic was in full force, Uber users fell by half, and trips by three quarters.
11. In 2020, Uber suffered losses of $3.86 per share.
As Uber trips fell down, the value of its stocks suffered great losses.
12. Lyft reported a nearly 80% drop in rides in March 2020
Companies engaged in ridesharing saw most of their revenue dry up as soon as lockdowns were announced and people were mandated or encouraged to stay at home.
13. Airbnb laid off 25% of their staff in May 2021
Similarly, companies in the accommodation space also saw revenues collapse, leading to mass redundancies.
14. In the UK, 65% of sharing economy businesses reported a loss of revenue, compared with 50% of all businesses
A majority of all sharing economy businesses suffered losses of revenue, as stay-at-home orders were widely adopted in the UK across 2020 and 2021.
15. Food delivery companies received 543 million total orders in 2020 compared with 181 million orders the previous year.
Food delivery services such as Uber Eats, Postmates, Dash and Grubhub saw food orders tripling, as a majority of Americans stopped visiting restaurants and hospitality venues.
16 . Airbnb shares jump to 112% on its first day of trading on the public market
Coming out of the pandemic, and with a “positive” prognosis for the tourism market, Airbnb debuted on the stock market as a public company in 2021, seeing their share value jumped as investors were hopeful on the recovery of the tourism and travel industry.
The state of the “real” sharing economy
The so-called “real” sharing economy is the segment where goods and services are genuinely shared with motives of community caring, relationships and climate change prevention.
It can be tricky to disentangle the “real” sharing economy from the mainstream sharing economy dominated by huge corporations and profit-seeking activities.
After all, there are a multitude of gray areas
For example, an Airbnb host might be “sharing” a room in a flat they purchased with a mortgage to rent to tourists with no other intention than generating a profit.
However, another Airbnb host might be sharing a spare room in their house with the intention of meeting new people, renovating their house and making a donation to a homelessness charity.
Having said that, there are some platforms that are designed for genuine sharing and concern for community and environment. Examples include Freecycle, Olio and Couchsurfing.
Let’s discuss some statistics around their usage to understand the state of this segment of the sharing economy.
17. Couchsurfing is currently a global community of 14 million people in more than 200,000 cities.
Couchsurfing is in many ways, a previous generation of room sharing, however it never became nearly as popular as AirBnB and certainly not in the last 5 years.
Interestingly, Couchsurfing moved from not-for-profit for for-profit in 2011. Since then, It has experimented with monetization, including verification services, member fees and even advertising, with an estimated $4.5 million per year based on over 25 million page views.
18. Olio has saved 32 million food servings in 2020—mainly in the U.K.
Olio is one of the food waste apps, which are more common in Europe. As climate change bites and individuals wake up to the problem of wasted food, more are signing up to these schemes. Too Good to Go, a Danish app claims 46m users around the world.
19. Freecycle has currently just under 10M members
Freecycle is a platform that operates under the idea of “gifting”. Members give away and or receive items that have reached the end of the line for the current owner.
Literally anything can be given away on Freecycle, if only someone is willing to show up and take it. Even though there are many platforms for gifting, Freecycle is by far the most popular.
20. Wikipedia has 6,506,618 million articles in English as of 1 June 2022 - for free, all of it
The site, maintained by unpaid volunteers, is a non-commercial website run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in San Francisco.
Wikipedia is a much heralded poster child of the real sharing economy, and judging by the size and growth of their content, very much alive.
The state of the gig economy
The gig economy is the segment of the sharing economy where people engage in labor on a freelance basis, on zero-hour contracts, as opposed to permanent. This affords more freedom to the worker who is free to work and leave when they want. Having said that, disputes exist about the welfare of the workers themselves.
Let’s discuss some key figures that give some context and color to the state of the gig economy
21. The gig economy is forecast to grow from 204Bn in 2018 to 455bn by 2023, according to Mastercard
There is a prognosis of growth in this sector of the economy, as companies develop their value proposition in order to help people gain freelance and casual income. Companies in this area include Upwork and Fivver.
However, the gig economy also includes the revenue generated by workers in ride-sharing or food delivery, since they’re also freelance and predominantly zero-hour contracts.
Together, they form an increasing proportion of employment and, despite controversies, is geared for growth over the next few years.
22. 16% of Americans have ever earned money from an online gig platform, according to Pew Research.
Such is the popularity and low barriers of entry in the gig economy that an estimated 1 in 6 Americans have tried generating income by offering their time to deliver food, run errands, or complete short projects.
23. The gig economy is increasing threefold faster than the US workforce as a whole.
According to research from Upwork, there have been 59 million Americans performing freelance work in the past 12 months which amounts to one-third of the country’s entire workforce.
24. 12% of gig economy workers have been laid off from previous work compared to 5% of all employed people in the country.
This statistic gives an insight into the reasons as to why people might engage in the sharing economy. Besides the convenience of setting your own schedule and the satisfaction of “being your own boss”, the gig economy represents prompt employment and remuneration for those who’ve been laid off or struggle to find work.
25. U.S. Independent Professionals Earned an Estimated $247 Billion in 2021 according to Fiverr
Fiverr's produced their Fifth Annual Freelance Economic Impact Report, showing how US gig economy workers earned a quarter of a trillion dollars. The company quotes freedom and autonomy (leading to job satisfaction) as the main reason these workers are skipping traditional, permanent employment.
26. 60% of the American 54M freelancers who left a full-time job to become freelancers make more money than they did in their previous jobs, according to Upwork’s industry research
There are many reasons as to why people freelance, however one of the most persuasive ones to give the plunge is extra earnings from “cutting the middleman out” and connecting directly with companies who need talent.
The economic gains for the majority of freelancers is often quoted as one of the main reasons fuelling growth in this sector.
27. Fiverr customers (companies hiring casual workers) are split between categories such as Computer Software (19%), IT and Services (16%), Internet (6%) and Marketing and Advertising (5%)
Knowledge and technology work is big in the gig economy and freelance platforms.
>The state of accommodation sharing
Accommodation sharing is the segment of the sharing economy where homeowners share rooms or whole places to tourists and other travelers. As much else in the sharing economy, it’s a mix of private homeowners sharing a spare room to make ends meet, mixed with profit-seeking landlords who buy properties to rent.
This is one of the areas of the sharing economy facing the most scrutiny and controversy, as studies speak of “the Airbnb effect”, where accommodation sharing can lead to gentrification, house price spikes and over-touristification.
28. Airbnb accounted for 18% of the total U.S. lodging revenue in 2020
Up from 12%, this data from AirDNA shows there is growth in this form of accommodation, despite troubles during the pandemic.
29. Airbnb has received 1BN guest arrivals in the 15 years it has been active
Airbnb has gone a long way since its humble origins in San Francisco 15 years ago, where the founders experimented with peer-to-peer accommodation rentals.
Since then, and thanks to 4m hosts across the 220 countries and 6m listings, over a billion guest arrivals have been hosted via the platform.
30. Airbnb is most popular in Europe, with a total of 4,840,487 listings in 2021
Europe is the most popular destination for Airbnb guests, with just under 5m listings in the continent alone.
31. 9 in 10 Airbnb’s bookings are from leisure travel, compared to 20%-30% for large hotel chains that tend to have a business profile.
Airbnb is associated with tourism and exploration, as business travelers tend to favor hotel amenities. It’s also worth noting that Airbnb listings can get access to more central and desirable locations which tourists favor.
32. Approximately 35%of Airbnb hosts globally said one of the reasons they host is to earn money to help cover the rising cost of living.
Airbnb regularly conducts surveys to understand the motivations of hosts, and how to best serve them. In their latest survey, they found a third of hosts are using revenues from accommodation sharing to confront the current cost of living crisis and to generally make ends meet.
The state of ride sharing and mobility
Ridesharing is the segment of the sharing economy devoted to shared transport, usually in cars. Examples of ride-sharing include carpooling companies such as Bla Bla Car where passengers share the associated costs with traveling between cities, and ride-hailing where passengers board on cars making small trips around a city.
Carpooling has a longer history and it’s more commonly associated with the original, “real” sharing economy as their users were people trying to save a bit of money in regular commuting between cities. On the contrary, ride-hailing apps such as Uber were born to replicate the taxi business and represent stable income for drivers.
34. Mobility platforms currently have the most active customer engagement with 74% of consumers engaging in some form of mobility sharing.
When looking at mobility sharing as a whole, studies find a large majority of consumers having experienced these services.
35. The number of ride-sharing trips grew almost 300% in the last years.
There is unparalleled growth in the ride-hailing sector, having weathered the pandemic and no end of regulatory challenges. This shows there is an appetite for the value proposition that these firms offer all parties.
36. The mobility (ridesharing) segment of the business generates $6.1 billion per year
The main player in the market is Uber with a 68% share of the US ride-hailing market. The Uber app has been installed 95 million times – making it the most downloaded app in the travel category for both Android and iOS.
37. 36% of U.S. adults say they have ever used a ride-hailing service such as Uber or Lyft, according to a Pew Research Center
Ride-hailing is popular. Apps such as Uber make getting a cab in New York or London very easy, and often more economical. More than a third of Americans at the time of writing have used one of these services.
38. Uber has 55% of the share market of drivers, with Lyft taking another 21%. Interestingly, the rest of the drivers combine both Lyft and Uber bookings (25%).
Uber is the first brand that comes to mind when we talk about ride-sharing, yet it only accounts for over half of exclusive drivers.
The state of clothes swapping
Clothes swapping could be included under the sharing of goods, but we will cover it separately as it is not as often thought of as an example of the sharing economy.
It is however, a crucial sector to address considering the huge role that the fashion industry plays in climate change.
The second-hand market for fashion is growing fast, as concerns for the environment become widespread amongst young people (also the biggest spenders in fashion).
39. Vinted has 45 million registered users and 45 million active users and $32.5 million in annual revenue.
Companies such as Vinted offer free-free clothes swapping, making an interesting choice for those wishing to curb their carbon footprint.
Currently, on a trajectory of growth, Vinted boasts 45M registered users.
40. 75% of Vinted’s customers have never bought or sold second hand clothes in their lives before coming to the platform, according to the founder.
This statistic shows the power of these platforms to change behavior in positive ways. With the power of advertising, word of mouth and promotion, these platforms are helping to grow the market for second-hand clothes.
The state of peer-to-peer consumer goods
The sharing economy also includes consumer goods as individuals increasingly buy, sell, lend and rent underutilized assets; from boats and RVs, to cameras and bouncy castles.
41. There are 1.6BN listings on eBay.
eBay is the posterchild of early examples of peer to peer economy.
The story of eBay is fascinating and belongs to the archives of internet history. Originally known as Auctionweb, it started as early as 1995, where online payments were rare. Today, almost everyone in developed nations has bought or sold something on eBay, often as part of an auction.
42. Peer-to-peer boat rental company Boatsetter announced a 74% increase in rentals from the year previous and a 40% increase in listings.
And those purchases also extended to a huge increase in bookings and listings in boat rentals via sharing platforms.
43. Peer to peer RV rental marketplace Outdoorsy increases bookings 4,500% during 2020.
Despite experiencing a 90 percent cancellation rate early in the year due to the pandemic, Outdoorsy's RV bookings surged in 2020, leading to the company's best year on record, with a more than 4,500% increase in bookings throughout the course of the pandemic.
44. With an estimated 14 million mopeds in circulation in Taipei, Taiwan, new peer-to-peer rental platform SKRT allows individuals to monetize their own vehicles.
Mopeds are a very popular form of transport in Taiwan, with most families having one or more mopeds, some of them perhaps not in much use. By giving everyone the means to rent their mopeds, they’ve been able to create a market for tourism rental, helping the local economy flourish.
45. Over 85K car owners (hosts) rent to 1.3M guests on Turo - the world’s leading peer to peer car rental service.
Turo has 161K active vehicles, 1,300+ makes and models, and is in 7,500+ cities. Its 85K car owners (hosts) serve 1.3M guests (customers). Guests booked 7.4 million days on Turo over the nine months ended September 30, 2021. That is $44.66 per day.
The demographics of the sharing economy
The sharing economy in all its facets has always represented a paradigm shift in business models of ownership and consumption.
Because of their novel nature and their strong link with digital technologies, users of the sharing economy can skew young.
On the other hand, providers in the sharing economy such as Airbnb hosts and Uber drivers can be much older.
This makes sense. Buyers in the sharing economy are affluent professionals often swapping money for the time and convenience of a ride or an errand taken care of.
However, those offering the services are in need of cash and often, the flexibility of this type of work, which can suit career changers or those nearing retirement.
46. 75% of Millennials rate their views and experiences with the sharing economy as very positive, compared to 64% of those 35-64 and 52% of those older than 65.
Young people are the biggest fans of the sharing economy, as they enjoy the convenience and user experience provided by these platforms, and don’t have years of habit and cultural conditions to beat.
When these new apps started, they were offering an alternative method of consumption that older people struggled with (staying overnight at some stranger’s home, using a mobile phone to hail a taxi), hence they remain their most popular and supportive customers.
47. The average Airbnb host in the UK is 44 years old, and 61% of them are women.
Service providers in the sharing economy don’t skew as young, as they use the service to generate revenue, sometimes passive revenue based on under-utilized assets.
Airbnb reports the average age of their British host to be 44 years old.
48. 73% of Uber drivers are older than 40 years-old
Uber drivers are even older than Airbnb hosts, with a large majority of drivers being older than 40 years old.
49. 30% of young people (18- to 29) have worked through an online gig platform, but this drops to 18% among those ages 30 to 49 and even smaller for those ages 50 and older.
When focused on online platforms for short contracts and errands, such as Upwork and Fivver, we see the workforce turning a bit younger.
50. Considering ethnicity, 30% of the gig economy workforce are Hispanic, compared with 20% of Black adults, 19% of Asian adults, and 12% of White adults.
Interestingly, gig economy work is a lot more common in Hispanic populations than any other. This might indicate there are cultural factors involved in this type of work.
Controversies in the sharing economy
The sharing economy has been tangled in controversy for as long as it has existed.
In its inception, the sharing economy users were concerned with motives of community building and climate change prevention.
However, as for-profit companies entered the market armed with venture capitalist investment, profit-oriented growth transformed the sharing economy into mainstream ecommerce. Now, professionals are acting as hosts and drivers, and regular consumers purchasing as if from standard companies with insurance, and service level agreements.
51. 73% of Airbnb hosts are professional property owners with more than one property.
Hosts who are renting apartments they have purchased with this intention (or a mix of for-profit objectives) are growing. Individual hosts (the type that Airbnb likes to pretend to form the majority of the host community) have gone from 47% in 2018 to 32% in 2020.
52. 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices.
A study done by the National Bureau of Economic research found a strong correlation between Airbnb listings and house prices, as prices paid by Airbnb guests (mostly tourists and short-term visitors) per night is much higher than regular
53. 75% of customers think it’s something positive.
At an individual level, however, customers of sharing economy platforms think that these services offer something positive.
Have any other cool statistics you think we should include? Just comment below.