Portland Ranked 3rd Best City for Freelancers in the U.S.

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Kirsten Nicolaisen, GoLocalPDX Content Manager

Portland is the 3rd best city to work in as a freelancer, according to a new study by NerdWallet.

To determine how conducive cities are for successful freelancing, NerdWallet looked at the percentage of households earning self-employment income, the average income earned by those households, the health care access and affordability in each city and the cost of living.

The study found that in Portland, 15.52% of households have self-employment income and that the average freelance income earned is $32,191.95 a year. Portland's median rent is $956 and health insurance is $158.58 a month. Portland earned an overall score of 62.30 for successful freelancing, just behind Los Angeles at 62.99. Scottsdale, Arizona ranked #1 with an overall score of 74.83.

The number of freelance or contingent workers in the U.S. is projected to surpass 40% of the workforce by 2020, according to a report by Intuit. Across the U.S. 12.3 million households reported earning self-employment income in 2013- 11% of all house holds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. These house holds earned an average of $34,095 a year.

See the top 10 cities for freelancers below:

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