Section 1
How does the type of plan affect the permanence of members?
Member permanence varies noticeably by plan type, with remote and full‑space plans showing the longest stays while desk‑based and part‑time plans cluster at shorter lengths. The gap between the most and least lasting plans is large enough to be meaningful, though differences within the shorter group are modest and should be read cautiously because the charts do not show sample sizes or variability that affect confidence in small gaps.
Across the period covered, average membership duration has risen steadily, with clear step‑ups around the pandemic and another sustained increase afterwards. The growth is strongest for remote and larger‑scale plans, seat‑based offerings have also lengthened but remain lower, and recurring year‑end bumps suggest predictable seasonal effects on how long members stay.
Key findings
How does the type of plan affect the permanence of members?
Average tenure splits by plan into two groups: virtual and office members show the longest permanence, around 14 months and 13 months respectively, while dedicated desks and hot desks sit near 8 months and part‑time near 7 months. The gap from the longest to the shortest is about seven months, so virtual memberships tend to be markedly more lasting than desk-based or part‑time plans.
Differences inside the lower group are very small, while the largest contrasts appear between virtual or office plans and the desk/part‑time cluster. Interpret these patterns with caution, because the chart does not provide sample sizes or measures of spread that would affect how confident we can be about small differences.
Evolution & user behaviour in the flexible workspace industry
The global mean tenure chart shows a clear, long‑term rise in how long memberships last: average tenure climbs from about 6 months in early 2016 to roughly 12 months by September 2026, roughly doubling over the period. There is a notable uplift in mid‑2020 to about 8 months and another sustained rise to about 9 months by December 2022, with a global peak near 13 months in March 2026 before a brief drop and recovery later in the year. Tenure tends to step up from November into December and January, suggesting a recurring year‑end increase.
The chart by membership type tells a similar story but with clear differences across plans. Tenures were low and volatile in 2016–18, rose around 2020, and then grew steadily after 2021. By 2024–2026, remote and larger‑scale offerings show the highest permanence: Virtual hits about 16 months in March 2026 and Office about 13 months in July 2026. Seat‑based plans remain lower but have increased—Dedicated Desk reached about 10 months in January 2026 and Hot Desk peaked near 10 months in March 2025—while Part‑time memberships also climbed to around 10–11 months in 2025–2026, indicating longer average stays across many plan types.
Section 2
How does the user profile influence the permanence of members?
Member tenure generally increases with age across all membership options: younger members typically stay only a few months while older members remain much longer. Membership type matters too — virtual and office arrangements tend to be the most enduring, whereas hot-desk and part‑time options generally lead to shorter stays.
Differences between freelancers and teams are small overall, so those gaps should be treated cautiously without more context. Clearer contrasts appear across membership types rather than coworker type, with some combinations (for example, freelancers in office plans) showing noticeably longer stays than others.
Key findings
How does the age of members affect their tenure?
Member tenure clearly grows with age across membership types: younger members tend to stay only a few months while older members remain much longer. For example, virtual members rise from about 6 months in the youngest group to roughly 16 months in the oldest, while dedicated desk members move from about 5 months to around 9 months over the same span.
Different membership types show distinct permanence patterns: office memberships are among the most stable, climbing from about 9 months for the youngest to about 14 months for the oldest; hot desk stays moderate and steadily increases from about 8 to 12 months; part‑time starts low and nearly doubles from about 5 to 10 months. These patterns show older members consistently have longer tenures, with virtual and office options the most enduring.
How does tenure compare between freelancers and teams?
From the coworker-type comparison chart, freelancers and teams show very similar average tenures: freelancers stay about 11 months and teams about 11 months, with freelancers only about ten days longer. This tiny gap is unlikely to be meaningful without information on sample sizes or variation.
The membership-type chart highlights clearer differences: virtual members have the longest tenure at about 14 months while part-time and hot-desk users are the shortest at about 7–8 months. Office users stand out because freelancers in offices stay noticeably longer (about 13 months) than teams (about 10 months). Dedicated and part-time memberships show only small gaps between teams and freelancers, roughly in the 7 to 9 month range.
Section 3
Evolution & user behaviour in the flexible workspace industry
Member tenure tends to shorten as coworking companies grow: smaller companies generally see longer average stays while the largest companies show the shortest. Membership type matters — virtual plans often record the longest stays but also the biggest decline with scale, office plans remain the most stable, and less-committed plans (dedicated desk, hot desk, part-time) have shorter stays; freelancers remain longer than teams across operator sizes, with teams losing more tenure as company size increases.
Across the past decade average tenure has risen for all company size bands, with the strongest gains at small and mid-size spaces and more gradual increases among the largest companies; growth included several pronounced step changes at key moments. Tenure also increases with member age: the youngest users have the shortest stays and older users the longest, and size-related differences are largest for younger cohorts and narrow as age increases.
Key findings
Mean tenure by membership type
Mean membership tenure falls steadily as coworking companies grow: the smallest operators show the longest stays while the largest show the shortest. For example, virtual members average about 18 months in very small operators but about 12 months in the largest ones, while office members move from about 14 months down to about 12 months. All membership types decline as company size increases.
Virtual memberships are the stickiest yet also show the largest drop from small to large operators; in the smallest companies virtual is about 18 months versus hot desk about 10 months, a gap of roughly 7 months. Less-committed plans—dedicated desk, hot desk and part-time—start near 11, 10 and 11 months in small operators and fall to roughly 7 months in the largest operators, whereas office tenures remain the most stable across sizes.
Evolution of tenure
Mean member tenure rose across all coworking-company size bands from 2016 to 2026. Smaller and mid-size operators saw the biggest increases: 0–40 members climbed from about 8 months to around 19 months, 41–100 from about 7 to roughly 19–20 months, and 101–250 from about 5 to about 19 months. Operators with more than 250 members grew more modestly, from roughly 3 months to around 11 months and remained below a year throughout the period.
The rise was steady but included distinct month-to-month jumps at key times: early 2020 showed a noticeable uptick across smaller bands, late 2022 included a near four-month increase for the 41–100 group, and early 2025 brought further gains for the 101–250 group. By 2026 the small and mid-size bands hit their highest average tenures, indicating a sustained shift toward longer stays, while the largest operators increased more gradually.
Mean tenure by age
Mean tenure increases with age across all coworking company sizes. Young members aged 17-24 show the shortest stays—around 7 months at the smallest and biggest operators and about 10 months at mid-sized operators—while the oldest group (55-100) records the longest tenure, roughly 15 months at the smallest operators, 14 months at mid-sized, 12 months at larger, and 13 months at the largest operators.
Size-related differences are most pronounced among the youngest users and narrow with age: the spread at 17-24 is several months but falls to about two and a half months by 55-100. Small operators show the biggest early rise (about a 4-month jump from 17-24 to 25-34), the largest operators have a similar early increase of about 3 months, and mid-to-large operators rise more steadily with only a slight dip in the mid-30s for the 41-100 group.
Average length of stay by coworking size
Average length of stay falls steadily as coworking company size increases. In the smallest companies (0-40 members) average tenure is about 14 months for freelancers and about 14 months for teams, while in the largest companies it drops to roughly 10 months for freelancers and about 9 months for teams. Freelancers consistently remain longer than teams, with the gap small in small and mid-size operators and noticeably larger in the biggest companies.
The decline is gradual across mid-size operators — mid bins sit near 13 months for freelancers and 12 months for teams — but becomes sharper when moving to operators with more than 250 members. From the smallest to the largest companies teams lose about 4.5 months of average stay and freelancers about 3.7 months, showing larger operators see faster turnover, especially among teams.
