Site logo

ETO Home

Recent news items
Site search
Site contents

Telework
Teletrade
Telecooperation

Events
Links
Resources database

Presentations
Definitions
FAQs
Statistics

Discussion
Feedback
Advertise at site
Site management
Privacy policy

Page updated:
31 March 2000

Page owner:
ETO Site Team

   

Teleworking section banner

How many teleworkers?

This free of charge service is made possible by our sponsors:

How many teleworkers?

This FAQ has been contributed by Horace Mitchell with support from the etd and eto teams. It draws on data from the European IT Observatory, the European Telework Status Reports and other sources.

Two main sets of data are provided:

Estimating numbers of teleworkers

Estimates of teleworking (telecommuting) vary very widely because of differences in definitions and methods of collecting the data. The European Commission has adopted a very broad definition:
the use of computers and telecommunications to change the accepted geography of work
which would include people working in telecentres, in multi-site teams, as mobile workers on the road and in many other ways, as well as home-based teleworkers. At the other extreme, some surveys at national level in the European Union have investigated only "employed people who work at home more than three days a week in an organised telework programme managed and supported by their employer". This very narrow definition misses out the many employed people who telework at home through informal agreement with their manager in the absence of a company scheme, and those who work at home regularly but less than three days a week, as well as the many self-employed people who use technology to deliver services to their customers and regard themselves as teleworkers.

The charts below show two recent (1999) estimates illustrating both the range of numbers that can arise from different definitions and the impact of cultural, social and economic differences across the European Union.

Click on each chart to view a full size image. For additional background and country by country commentary for Europe, USA and Japan, download the 1999 European Status Report.

1999 estimates from the ECaTT study



1. Numbers of teleworkers (telecommuters) by country

Chart: Number of teleworkers by country, ECaTT 1999 Click here or on the chart for a full sized image.

2. Teleworkers (telecommuters) as a percentage of workforce by country

Chart: Teleworkers as % of workforce, ECaTT 1999 Click here or on the chart for a full sized image.

3. The ECaTT methodology and definitions

ECaTT is a European project ("Benchmarking Progress on Electronic Commerce and New Methods of Work") led by empirica GmbH. The estimates are based on telephone interviews in 10 EU countries (about 1,000 people in each of the larger countries and 500 in the smaller) and extrapolation for the remaining five countries (see charts). The survey used four categories of teleworkers:
  • "Home-based": working at home (which is not the normal place of work) at least one full day equivalent per week, or permanently working from home and employed in paid work for an employer (ie not self-employed or temporary staff)
  • "Self-employed/SOHO": self-employed (or effectively self-employed because owner, partner, associate of company) and normal place of work is in home-based office
  • "Mobile": at least 10 hours per week spent away from home and/or main place of work
  • "Supplementary": As for "home-based" (above) but working at home less than one full day a week
Note that "Mobile" may include some people from the other groups so that the stacked bars do not represent the net total numbers estimated by ECaTT. Net total numbers per country are shown in the next chart:

4. Total teleworkers (telecommuters) by country

Chart: Teleworkers as % of workforce, ECaTT 1999 Click here or on the chart for a full sized image.

Estimates by the ETD Programme

ETD's estimates are based assessment of data from a range of different studies and reports, qualified by inputs from ETD national coordinators in the European countries. They include workers in telecentres (geographical substitution for deployment in branches closer to the customer.

1. Total teleworkers by country

Chart: Total teleworkers by country, ETD 1999 Click here or on the chart for a full sized image.

2. Teleworkers as a % of workforce

Chart: Teleworkers as % of workforce, ETD 1999 Click here or on the chart for a full sized image.

Check out our other Frequently Asked Questions:
Telework | E-commerce | Telecooperation

For comments or questions on this page, please use the feedback form

Site navigation: ETO Home | Telework | Teletrade | Telecooperation
Resources database | Events | Presentations
FAQs | Search the site | Be kept informed | Join the on-line discussion
Development of European Telework Online has been supported by ETD, an initiative of the European Commission (DGXIII) ACTS programme
Page address: http://www.eto.org.uk/faq/faq-numb.htm