The Great Freelancer Migration: How Miami Replaced San Francisco

June 29, 2026 

Freelance work has become a major part of the modern U.S. economy, but the places gaining independent workers are not always the biggest traditional job hubs. Some metro areas have seen sharp growth in freelancer businesses since 2019, while others have grown slowly, lost ground, or failed to keep pace once population change is taken into account.

To see where freelancer growth was strongest, Giggster analyzed the most recent available data on freelancer-related nonemployer businesses across the 30 largest U.S. metro areas. From there, we looked at which metros saw the most growth in freelancer businesses, where freelancer density increased fastest, and which metro areas showed the strongest or weakest growth patterns over time. 

View the full methodology and breakdown here.

Table of Contents

• The Winners and Losers (Miami Adds; San Francisco Declines)
• The Sun Belt Surge (Six Times Faster Growth Than Coastal Metros)
• The Year-by-Year Shift (2020 Disrupted the Coasts; Sun Belt Kept Growing)

Key Takeaways

• The Miami metro area was the strongest freelancer-growth market, adding about 19K freelancer businesses, while its freelancer business density increased by nearly 20%.
  
  
• Freelancer growth is shifting toward the South and Southwest. The metro areas of Florida, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina appear repeatedly among the strongest growth markets.
  
  
• San Francisco was the only metro area to decline, losing about 3.9K freelancer businesses.
  
  
• Leading Sun Belt metros grew freelancer businesses nearly six times faster than several large coastal metros: Miami, Orlando, Charlotte, San Antonio, and Dallas-Fort Worth averaged about 19.5% growth, compared with about 3.4% across Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Seattle, and Boston. 

The Winners and Losers (Miami Adds; San Francisco Declines) 

What the data shows:

• The Miami metro area had the biggest freelancer boom, adding about 19K freelancer businesses over five years, from 81.3K to 100.4K.
  
  
• The South and Southwest stood out among the fastest-growing freelancer markets. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area added about 12K freelancer businesses, the Atlanta metro area gained 11K, and the Houston metro area added nearly 8K.
  
  
• The San Francisco metro area was the only one to lose freelancer businesses, falling from 76.2K to 72.3K, a decline of roughly 3.9K.

The Sun Belt Surge (Six Times Faster Growth Than Coastal Metros) 

What the data shows:

• Miami metro area’s freelancer businesses grew faster than its population, with density rising from 132 freelancer businesses per 10K residents to 158, about a 20% increase for 5 years.
  
  
• Atlanta, Orlando, Denver, Washington, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago, and Charlotte metro areas each added about 9 to 12 freelancer businesses per 10K residents, with density gains of roughly 10% to 11%.
  
  
• Austin, Sacramento, and New York metro areas added only about 1 to 2 freelancer businesses per 10K residents, while density rose by just about 1% to 2%.

The Year-by-Year Shift (2020 Disrupted the Coasts; Sun Belt Kept Growing) 

What the data says:

• Miami was the only metro area that had sustained freelancer growth for five years straight.
  
  
• Several high-growth metros, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, had freelancer density fall in 2020 before rebounding strongly in 2021.
  
  
• New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Washington metro areas all recovered more slowly after 2019, with San Francisco being the only metro where freelancer concentration declined.

Key Terms

Methodology

This report evaluates freelancer business growth across the 30 largest U.S. metro areas. The analysis focuses on metropolitan statistical areas, not individual cities, and uses metro-level business and population data to compare where freelancer-related businesses grew fastest, where they lagged, and where freelancer business density increased after accounting for population size. 

The study period covers 2019 through 2023. The year 2019 was used as the pre-pandemic baseline, while 2023 was used as the latest available year for nonemployer business data. 

Freelancer Business Definition

This report uses freelancer-related nonemployer businesses from the U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics as a proxy for freelancers, independent workers, and solo business owners (2019 to 2023).

Nonemployer businesses are businesses with no paid employees that file federal income taxes and report more than $1,000 in annual receipts. To keep the analysis focused on freelance and independent knowledge work, the dataset was filtered to business categories that primarily capture solo creative, technical, professional, and media-related work.

Included categories covered:

• independent artists, writers, and performers; 
• specialized design services; 
• computer systems design; 
• advertising, 
• public relations, and related services; 
• management, scientific, and technical consulting; 
• marketing research; internet publishing; 
• motion picture and video industries.

This approach excludes many nonemployer businesses that may not match the common understanding of freelancing, such as local service businesses or trades.

Freelancer Business Growth

The Freelancer Business Growth ranking compares the percentage change in freelancer-related nonemployer businesses using U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics (2019 to 2023).

Freelancer Business Growth = (Freelancer Businesses in 2023 − Freelancer Businesses in 2019) ÷ Freelancer Businesses in 2019 × 100

Freelancer business counts in tables are rounded and displayed in “K” format for readability. For example, 81,274 is shown as 81.3K.

Freelancer Concentration

This category adjusts for population size by calculating freelancer businesses per resident. This helps distinguish between metros that simply grew in population and metros where freelancer businesses became more concentrated.

Freelancer concentration was calculated using U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics for freelancer business counts and U.S. Census Bureau metro-area population estimates for each year from 2019 through 2023.

For reader clarity, freelancer concentration is displayed as freelancer businesses per 10,000 residents.

Freelancer Businesses per 10,000 Residents = Freelancer Businesses ÷ Metro Population × 10,000

Increase per 10,000 Residents = Freelancer Businesses per 10,000 Residents in 2023 − Freelancer Businesses per 10,000 Residents in 2019

Growth Patterns Over Time

This category examines how freelancer density changed year by year from 2019 to 2023.

Year-over-year freelancer density was calculated using U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics for freelancer business counts, and U.S. Census Bureau metro-area population (2019 to 2023).

Year-over-Year Freelancer Concentration Change = (Freelancer Concentration in Later Year − Freelancer Concentration in Earlier Year) ÷ Freelancer Concentration in Earlier Year × 100

This was calculated for four periods:

2019–2020;
2020–2021;
2021–2022;
2022–2023.

Metro areas were then grouped by the shape of their trend over time. Growth levels summarize each metro’s overall change in freelancer concentration from 2019 to 2023.

Growth pattern labels describe the timing of the change, such as sustained growth, a sharp rebound after a 2020 dip, post-2020 growth, or slower recovery. These categories are interpretive groupings used to summarize timing patterns, not separate index scores.

Ranking Convention

Rankings are category-specific. A metro area may rank highly in overall freelancer business growth, but not rank as highly after adjusting for population size.

The analysis is based on metro areas, not city limits. For example, “Miami” refers to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area, not only the city of Miami.

Things to Keep in Mind

This report uses nonemployer businesses as a proxy for freelancers. Not every nonemployer business is a freelancer, and not every freelancer operates as a nonemployer business. However, Nonemployer Statistics are one of the most consistent federal datasets available for comparing independent business activity across metro areas.

The rankings should be interpreted as directional and comparative. They show where freelancer-related business activity grew faster or slower among the 30 largest U.S. metro areas, not a complete count of every freelance worker in the country.