As the coworking space industry continues to ramp up across the world, by the end of this year, there is expected to be 2.2 million people working out of 22,000 coworking spaces worldwide. Despite this, it seems that that major cities have hit their boiling point.

The 2019 Global Coworking Survey explored whether these operators could weather an economic downturn and continue being sustainable companies.

Since the very first Coworking Survey, the area of coworking spaces has grown; now, for the first time, their average size has shrunk.

Another finding from the survey was that older coworking spaces have started closing their doors. While the reasoning for this is not definite, it can be assumed that it is due to lack of profitability or moving on from the industry.

Currently, only one out of ten coworking spaces report a bad business situation, which stands out more negatively in smaller markets.

Two-thirds of all coworking spaces reported an increase in membership, with a third of them expanding in size. This has led about 28% of operators raising their prices and, in turn, boosted their profitability.

The biggest issue that 60% of coworking spaces reported is retaining and attracting new members — a familiar issue that the industry has seen in years past.