The counties with the most self-employed workers
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About 13 percent of American workers are self-employed. In Juneau, Alaska, it's 29.5 percent, which is the most for any county in the nation.
| County | Self-employed | Median household income |
|---|---|---|
| Juneau, AK | 29.5% | $101,661 |
| San Miguel County, NM | 29.0% | $49,431 |
| Apache County, AZ | 28.5% | $41,438 |
| Tompkins County, NY | 24.5% | $74,024 |
| Fremont County, WY | 24.0% | $64,904 |
| Letcher County, KY | 23.9% | $41,793 |
| Franklin County, KY | 23.9% | $65,298 |
| Wakulla County, FL | 23.9% | $81,895 |
| Somerset County, MD | 23.1% | $64,943 |
| Beltrami County, MN | 22.9% | $68,975 |
| Grant County, NM | 22.9% | $44,958 |
| Franklin County, NY | 22.8% | $65,151 |
| Albany County, WY | 22.5% | $61,917 |
| Lewis County, NY | 22.4% | $68,182 |
| Allegany County, NY | 22.4% | $62,869 |
Self-employment usually means no alternative
Your instinct is to read a high self-employment rate as entrepreneurial energy. For the most part that's true, but it could also mean the county has very few employers or no jobs readily available.
Apache County, Arizona covers a large part of the Navajo Nation. Fremont County, Wyoming includes the Wind River Reservation. Beltrami County, Minnesota contains Red Lake. These are places where formal payroll jobs are scarce across enormous distances, and people work for themselves because that's what's available: ranching, crafts, hauling, seasonal contract work, running a small operation out of a truck.
Letcher County, Kentucky is coal country that lost its industry. San Miguel County, New Mexico is rural and among the poorer counties in a poor state. In all of these, self-employment is a measure of the absence of employers rather than the presence of startups.
Alaska has the highest self-employment rate in the country for structural reasons: commercial fishing, guiding and tourism, aviation, and the sheer cost of running a conventional business across a place with almost no road network. A large share of Alaskan work is contract work by necessity.
Tompkins County, New York is the one that fits optimistic story. It's home to Cornell, and university towns generate consultants, researchers, freelance technical workers, artists, and small specialty firms clustered around the institution.
The counties where self-employment pays
Sort for counties that combine high self-employment with high household income and the map changes. These are consultants, physicians and lawyers in private practice, architects, contractors running real firms, and people who left a payroll job because they could earn more without one.
| County | Self-employed | Median household income | Bachelor's or higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Putnam County, NY | 20.3% | $126,257 | 45% |
| Rockland County, NY | 19.3% | $109,959 | 43% |
| Albemarle County, VA | 18.4% | $104,392 | 61% |
| New Kent County, VA | 18.7% | $123,314 | 38% |
| Nassau County, NY | 18.1% | $146,202 | 50% |
| Orange County, NC | 19.2% | $90,089 | 62% |
| Olmsted County, MN | 22.2% | $95,406 | 49% |
| Thurston County, WA | 21.0% | $96,563 | 38% |
| Yolo County, CA | 21.1% | $91,752 | 45% |
| Staten Island, NY | 21.3% | $98,333 | 36% |
Nassau County on Long Island has 1.4 million residents, a median household income of $146,202, and an 18.1 percent self-employment rate, well above the national 13 percent. Putnam County reaches 20.3 percent at $126,257. Albemarle County outside Charlottesville and Orange County around Chapel Hill both pair roughly 19 percent self-employment with over 60 percent of adults holding a bachelor's degree.
Olmsted County, Minnesota is the clearest single case. It contains Rochester and the Mayo Clinic, and its 22.2 percent rate is built substantially on medical practices and specialty firms that orbit a major hospital system. The county has 164,498 residents and a $95,406 median income.
What the census counts
The figure covers people whose main job is working for their own business, whether or not it's incorporated. It includes a farmer, a contractor, a therapist in private practice, and someone driving for an app as their primary work.
It doesn't capture someone doing side work. Someone with a full-time payroll job who freelances on weekends is counted as an employee, so the true share of Americans earning self-employment income is meaningfully higher than 13 percent.
Sources
Self-employment figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, covering workers aged 16 and over whose primary job is in their own not incorporated or incorporated business. Counties shown have at least 20,000 residents. The national figure is a population-weighted average across states.
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Which US county has the most self-employed workers?
Juneau, Alaska has the highest share among counties with at least 20,000 residents, at 29.5 percent, followed by San Miguel County, New Mexico at 29.0 percent and Apache County, Arizona at 28.5 percent. The national rate is about 13 percent.
Does high self-employment mean a place is entrepreneurial?
Usually not. Most counties at the top have very few formal employers spread across large distances, so people work for themselves out of necessity through ranching, contracting, crafts, or seasonal work. Several are on tribal lands or in former coal country. Tompkins County, New York, home to Cornell, is the main exception, where consultants and specialty firms cluster around a university.
Does the census count gig and side work as self-employment?
Only if it is the person's main job. Someone with a full-time payroll position who freelances on weekends is counted as an employee, so the true share of Americans earning any self-employment income is higher than 13 percent. The measure also does not distinguish between a physician in private practice and someone piecing together gig work.
