These are the key remote work figures from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2020 to 2024, the most detailed official source on how Americans get to work.
National figures
- 15.1% of US workers usually work from home (50 states and DC).
- That is about 24,042,489 people out of 159,114,094 workers aged 16 and over.
- 236 of 673 classified occupations can typically be done from home (Dingel and Neiman 2020).
States with the highest share
- District of Columbia: 33.0%
- Colorado: 21.0%
- Washington: 19.8%
- Maryland: 19.3%
- Oregon: 19.0%
- Massachusetts: 18.6%
- Arizona: 18.4%
- Virginia: 18.3%
- Minnesota: 17.6%
- Utah: 17.6%
States with the lowest share
- Mississippi: 5.9%
- Puerto Rico: 6.1%
- North Dakota: 8.1%
- Louisiana: 8.1%
- Arkansas: 8.8%
- Alabama: 8.8%
- West Virginia: 9.1%
- Wyoming: 9.4%
- Oklahoma: 9.4%
- Hawaii: 9.6%
Biggest increases since 2019
Compared with the 2019 ACS 1-year survey (a different product, so read the change as indicative):
- District of Columbia: +25.6 pts
- Maryland: +13.8 pts
- Washington: +13.3 pts
- Massachusetts: +13.2 pts
- Virginia: +12.5 pts
Metro areas with the highest share
- Boulder, CO: 31.2%
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX: 26.8%
- Raleigh-Cary, NC: 26.2%
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA: 25.8%
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV: 25.4%
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: 24.0%
- Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO: 23.9%
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: 23.5%
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC: 23.2%
- Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA: 22.7%
Counties with the highest share (50,000+ workers)
- Arlington County, VA: 35.3%
- District of Columbia, DC: 33.0%
- Forsyth County, GA: 32.5%
- Marin County, CA: 31.5%
- Boulder County, CO: 31.2%
- Loudoun County, VA: 31.2%
- San Francisco County, CA: 31.0%
- Douglas County, CO: 30.5%
- Travis County, TX: 30.2%
- King County, WA: 29.2%