The rise in homeworkers and the self-employed has been one of the big economic stories of post credit crunch Britain. Our data has found a 67% increase in home working between 2014 and 2016 and according to the ONS, Britain's population of self-employed has risen by over a million people between 2008 and 2015.

However, the ratio of home workers to non home workers varies across the UK.

Where are the UK's homeworkers?

When we looked at the distribution of home insurance quotes we provided to homeworkers in 2016, we found that a large majority came from the South. The South West is a real hotspot, with our data suggesting that over 0.1% of the population of Bristol, Truro and Bath work from home in some capacity, well above the national average of 0.04%.

Conversely, home working appears to be a lot less common in Northern England, London and the Midlands.

In fact, when we looked at the cities with the fewest homeworkers per head, Birmingham, Sunderland and Newcastle made up the bottom three. With Treasury data indicating that manufacturing and warehouse jobs make up a large proportion of the output of each of these cities, perhaps home work is more profitable in areas with a strong service sector?

Where are the UK’s homeworkers?

How do homeworkers work?

Broadly speaking, Britain's homeworkers are mostly employed in the service sector. From computer programmers, music teachers and beauty therapists, most support the needs of the country's primary workers.

Wherever we looked in the UK, child welfare was easily the largest cohort. Childminders, teachers and tutors are responsible for over 25% of the insurance quotes we provide for homeworkers. Health care workers such as physiotherapists, psychologists and healthcare consultants, also make up a large proportion of homeworkers on our books.

There are some regional variations though. homeworkers in Southern England seem to be more focussed on health, with 3 out of 10 providing some kind of medical or healthcare service. Wales also stands out for having the most music teachers per head.

Scotland on the other hand, has a higher proportion of programmers and IT workers than any other region, perhaps showing that the Scottish government's recent investments in internet infrastructure and family friendly working are beginning to bear fruit.

Northern England
Midlands
Southern England
Scotland
Wales
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Art Worker
Beauty therapist
Childminder
Computing
Construction
Engineer
Healthcare
Music teacher
Officially retired
Teacher

Home working vs unemployment

When we compared our data to regional unemployment rates, our results fit in with national trends, with the number of homeworkers peaking in areas of low unemployment.

Since the 2010 coalition government, self-employment has risen steadily, with the ONS reporting that London, the South East and the South West has seen the biggest increases. This is a trend that we've also seen in our own data, with high levels of home working reported from the South East and South West.

In regions where unemployment is comparatively high, we generally see fewer homeworkers.

Unemployment rate vs numer of homeworkers per citizen

Find out more about home insurance for homeworkers

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