Best Coworking Capitals 2022
The popularity of coworking spaces has skyrocketed in recent years, and research suggests the coworking trend won’t die down any time soon. Market analysts predict that an estimated five million people will be based in coworking spaces by 2024, which is a huge 158% increase from today.
Coworking spaces offer both businesses and workers a high degree of flexibility, as well as allow employees to work alongside colleagues in a collaborative and creative environment – something that may be particularly appealing after the isolation of home-working during the pandemic.
But which cities around the world are the most successful at meeting the growing demand for coworking spaces?
To find out, Business Name Generator has investigated 53 cities around the world and analyzed how they perform when it comes to coworking. By gathering information about the number of coworking spaces available, their average monthly cost, WiFi speed, and search volume data, we’re able to reveal which city is the coworking capital of the world.
London is the Coworking Capital of the World, Followed by Singapore and Berlin
Our research reveals London as the best city in the world for coworking, with a staggering 1,322 coworking spaces available throughout the UK capital. This is over 1,000 more than Paris, the city with the second highest number of coworking spaces on offer. London also had the highest average monthly search volume for coworking spaces at 4,400, proving that demand is particularly high here.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to London’s impressive array of coworking spaces. The average monthly cost per desk is $308, which is 35% more expensive than the average cost for all other cities in the top 15 list. It is also placed last out of the top 15 for WiFi speed, though its speed of 102.24 Mbps is still not bad at all.
Coming in second and third on the list are Singapore and Berlin, both of which offer far fewer coworking spaces than London – 214 in Singapore and 192 in Berlin – but also have much smaller populations to cater for. The average cost of a coworking space in these cities is also lower than in London, so although there are fewer spaces to choose from, the price of those available is less of an issue.
Berlin also ranks as the third happiest city globally, beaten only by Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Overall happiness is an important factor to consider here, as happier workers mean happier coworking spaces.
San Francisco places last on the list, with only 81 coworking spaces available despite a high monthly search volume of 2,400. This US city also has the highest price tag for coworking spaces, at an average of $359 per desk.
Other cities at the bottom of the list include Paris, with just 246 coworking spaces on offer for a population of 2.1 million, and Los Angeles which has 130 coworking spaces available for an average cost of $305 – the second highest after San Francisco.
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Middle Eastern Cities are the Best Cities for Commuters
As well as investigating the world’s top coworking cities, we’ve also taken a look at which cities are the best – and worst – for commuters.
Doha in Qatar is the best commuter city, thanks to low travel costs and short commute times. A one-way ticket on public transport in this Middle Eastern capital city costs an average of just $0.55, and a liter of petrol is only slightly more expensive at $0.57. On top of this, commuters using public transportation can expect to wait just three minutes for transport, and their average commute time is only 30 minutes.
Commuters in Doha will lose an average of 43 hours per year to traffic, which is more than those in the second-best commuter city Abu Dhabi will lose (25 hours), but still much lower than some other cities in the ranking. Workers in Tokyo, for example, lose on average of 98 hours per year to traffic – more than double the time lost in Doha.
Taiwan’s capital Taipei comes third, offering shorter average commute times than Abu Dhabi (35 minutes one-way on public transport, compared to Abu Dhabi’s 45 minutes) but much more time lost to traffic (80 hours on average). Public transport is also a little more expensive in Taipei, with a one-way ticket costing an average of $0.83.
London Ranks Among the Worst Cities for Commuters
We all want lower travel costs and shorter waiting times when commuting to work, but unfortunately, many cities around the world aren’t able to offer these.
Despite being the number one city for coworking, London doesn’t perform so well when it comes to commuter rankings. According to our analysis, the capital is the sixth worst city in the world for commuters, largely due to its high travel costs. The average price of a one-way ticket on London’s public transport is $3.50, which is higher than in any of the other bottom 10 cities.
The worst commuter city in the world is Istanbul in Turkey, which isn’t too bad in terms of costs but takes the top spot thanks to its lengthy commute times. The average public transport commute in Istanbul is 68 minutes, and commuters here lose around 142 hours per year to traffic – the equivalent of nearly six full days.
After Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin are the worst cities for workers needing to commute. Although Berlin ranked as the third best city for coworking, it unfortunately also ranks as the third worst city for commuters thanks to very high petrol and public transport costs. Petrol in Berlin costs an average of $2.25 per liter, making it one of the most expensive cities to drive in out of all those we analyzed.
Sources and Methodology
- Number of coworking spaces by city: https://www.coworker.com
- The average cost of coworking spaces by city: https://www.coworker.com
- Search volume: Google Keyword Planner ( search term: “City” + coworking spaces)
- Cost of public transport / Average public transport wait time / Cost of petrol: https://www.numbeo.com
- Average commute time: https://moovitapp.com/insights/en/Moovit_Insights_Public_Transit_Index-countries, https://www.numbeo.com
- Average time lost per year to traffic: https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/ranking/?country=CA,MX,US