Home office work is measured in several ways: people who worked from home for pay, the share of work hours completed remotely, survey-reported schedules, and perceived effects. The figures below make those definitions, populations, periods, and geographies explicit.
Key Home Office Statistics
The most broadly useful home office statistics include:
- In Q1 2024, 35.5 million people in the United States teleworked or worked at home for pay, representing 22.9% of people at work.
- In the 2024 annual average, 22.8% of U.S. people at work teleworked some hours, including 11.9% who teleworked all hours.
- In Q1 2024, telework represented 16.3% of all hours worked in the United States.
- The average U.S. teleworker worked 27.2 hours from home per week in Q1 2024.
- Among U.S. teleworkers, 47.9% worked all of their hours from home in Q1 2024.
- In Q1 2024, 36.7% of U.S. teleworkers worked at least 40 hours from home weekly.
- The District of Columbia recorded a 56.8% telework rate in the 2024 annual average.
- Mississippi recorded a 7.3% telework rate in the 2024 annual average.
- In October 2024, 32% of U.S. workers with teleworkable jobs worked from home all the time.
- In October 2024, 43% of U.S. workers with teleworkable jobs had a hybrid schedule.
- In October 2024, 75% of non-self-employed workers with teleworkable jobs who were not fully remote said their employer required office days.
- In 2023, 59% of U.S. hybrid workers worked from home at least three days in a typical week.
- In October 2024, 73% of U.S. workers with teleworkable jobs who worked from home at least sometimes said it helped work-life balance.
- In October 2024, 60% of that group said their arrangement helped them get work done and meet deadlines.
- In October 2024, 49% said working from home at least sometimes made it harder to feel connected with co-workers.
- In October 2024, 46% said they would be unlikely to stay if their employer no longer allowed home working.
- Across 23 countries, college-educated workers averaged 1.23 work-from-home days per week in late 2024 and early 2025.
- In the same global study, the comparable average was 1.55 work-from-home days per week in 2022.
Contents
- How many people work from home
- Remote days and hours
- U.S. state adoption
- Hybrid schedules and employer requirements
- Productivity, work-life balance, and connection
- Global home office patterns
How Many People Work From Home?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 35.5 million people teleworked or worked at home for pay in Q1 2024, equal to 22.9% of people at work in the United States. The Current Population Survey covers people employed and at work during the reference week, so this is not a count of every employed person.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Telework trends.
The same BLS report placed the U.S. telework rate at 19.6% in Q1 2023 and reported an increase of 5.1 million teleworking people between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. These are year-over-year observations, not a forecast.
For the 2024 annual average, BLS counted 35,490 thousand people who teleworked some hours and 18,580 thousand who teleworked all hours. Another 120,005 thousand people did not telework or work at home for pay during the reference week.
| 2024 U.S. annual-average telework status | People, thousands | Share of people at work |
|---|---|---|
| Teleworked some hours | 35,490 | 22.8% |
| Teleworked all hours | 18,580 | 11.9% |
| Teleworked some but not all hours | — | 10.9% |
| Did not telework or work at home for pay | 120,005 | — |
Source: BLS, States: Persons at work by telework status, 2024 annual averages. The table reports BLS telework-for-pay measures and includes people who worked during the reference week.
Home Office Trends in Remote Days and Hours
Participation and time are different measures. In Q1 2024, telework accounted for 16.3% of all hours worked, compared with 15.0% in Q1 2023, while the average teleworker worked 27.2 hours from home per week, down from 29.3 hours in Q1 2023.
Among teleworkers, 47.9% worked all their hours from home in Q1 2024, down from 54.0% in Q1 2023. This means the all-hours share declined even as the overall telework rate increased.
| Weekly hours worked from home | Share of U.S. teleworkers, Q1 2024 |
|---|---|
| Up to 8 hours | 15.2% |
| 9–16 hours | 18.1% |
| 17–24 hours | 14.9% |
| 25–32 hours | 11.6% |
| 33–39 hours | 3.5% |
| 40 or more hours | 36.7% |
Source: BLS, Telework trends. The hours measure is among teleworkers and is not the same as the participation rate for all people at work; the comparison is not seasonally adjusted.
Home Office Adoption Across U.S. States
BLS state figures show substantial geographic variation in the 2024 annual average. They describe persons at work in each state-table geography, not all residents or all jobs.
| Geography | Telework rate | All-hours telework | Some-hours telework |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 56.8% | 36.0% | 20.8% |
| Colorado | 32.4% | 16.6% | 15.7% |
| Massachusetts | 31.4% | 18.9% | 12.6% |
| Washington | 30.8% | 16.3% | 14.5% |
| Maryland | 30.4% | 16.3% | 14.1% |
| Oregon | 29.3% | 14.1% | 15.3% |
| Virginia | 28.6% | 15.1% | 13.5% |
| California | 25.5% | 14.1% | 11.4% |
| Louisiana | 12.8% | 6.5% | 6.3% |
| Alabama | 10.7% | 4.4% | 6.3% |
| Mississippi | 7.3% | 2.9% | 4.4% |
Source: BLS, States: Persons at work by telework status, 2024 annual averages. Percentages are annual averages, and the reported state values are not a ranking of every U.S. state.
Hybrid Work Schedules and Employer Requirements
Pew Research Center uses a different denominator: workers with jobs that can mostly be done from home. In October 2024, 32% of these U.S. workers worked from home all the time and 43% had a hybrid schedule.
Among non-self-employed workers with teleworkable jobs who were not working from home all the time, 75% said their employer required office days in October 2024. The comparable share was 63% in 2023, based on the corresponding conditional survey population.
The 2023 Pew survey also described the internal shape of hybrid work:
- 63% of hybrid workers said their employer required a set number of in-person days.
- 59% worked from home three or more days in a typical week, while 41% worked from home two days or fewer.
- Among people working from home most of the time, 34% preferred working from home all the time if given the choice.
- Among people working from home some of the time, 18% preferred working from home all the time and 32% preferred doing so most of the time.
These are survey estimates and preferences, not measures of observed turnover or a universal schedule standard. The work-from-home denominator differs from the BLS population of people at work.
Sources: Pew Research Center, How COVID-19 changed US workplaces and Pew Research Center, About a third of U.S. workers who can work from home now do so all the time.
Home Office Outcomes for Productivity, Balance, and Connection
In October 2024, among U.S. workers with teleworkable jobs who worked from home at least sometimes, 73% said the arrangement helped work-life balance. Another 9% said it hurt work-life balance and 17% said it did neither.
The same survey found that 60% said their current arrangement helped their ability to get work done and meet deadlines. Seven percent said it hurt that ability, while 33% said it did neither.
The perceived benefits were not uniform across social and work relationships:
- 49% said working from home at least sometimes made it harder to feel connected with co-workers, while 11% said it helped.
- 34% said working from home hurt their opportunities for mentorship, while 13% said it helped.
- 46% said they would be unlikely to stay if their employer no longer allowed home working; 26% said they would be very unlikely to stay.
These figures measure perceptions and hypothetical intentions, not causal productivity effects or observed employee exits. They describe workers whose jobs can mostly be done from home rather than the entire employed population.
Video meetings were common but not universal in this population: 54% used services such as Zoom or Webex often, 25% sometimes, and 21% hardly ever or never. At least-sometimes use was 86% among workers with at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 69% among those with some college or less.
Source: Pew Research Center, How COVID-19 changed US workplaces.
Global Home Office Statistics by Country and Region
A peer-reviewed PNAS study examined repeated survey waves covering 42,938 workers in 23 countries. Its global comparisons concern college-educated workers, so they should not be presented as all-worker estimates.
| Period | Average work-from-home days per week | Population and geography |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.55 | College-educated workers in 23 countries |
| 2023 | 1.29 | College-educated workers in 23 countries |
| Late 2024/early 2025 | 1.23 | College-educated workers in 23 countries |
The study says the late-2024/early-2025 average implies college-educated workers did about 25% of workdays from home. That percentage is an estimate derived by the study from the average number of WFH days, not a direct all-worker measurement.
Regional patterns also differed. From November 2024 through February 2025, college-educated workers in English-speaking countries averaged about 1.5–1.9 WFH days per week, while workers in several East Asian countries averaged well below one day.
European and Latin American countries generally averaged around one WFH day per week.
The regional figures are broad patterns rather than single pooled estimates for every country or worker. They are best read alongside the study’s population definition and repeated-wave design.
Source: Global evidence on working from home.