Is this UK city the best in the world for co-working?

A new ranking of the best cities in the world for co-working has placed London firmly ahead of other global population centres – including New York, LA and Paris.

Research produced by retailer Aspinal of London discovered that the UK’s capital has by far the most co-working spaces, with 213.

New York came closest to that figure with 173 – although the Big Apple slipped down the ranking to fifth place overall.

London was also found to have the third-highest number of startups (2493) and came third for the number of company founders based there (3962).

Aspinal’s research looked at five core factors for co-working: the number of co-working spaces, average cost per month, number of startups, number of founders and broadband speed in mbps.

Los Angeles came in second place overall and Paris in third, followed by Bangalore.

Bangalore, capital of Karnataka in southern India, had the cheapest average workspace cost per month, at £67. London, by comparison, had one of the highest monthly costs at £312, second only to New York where the average monthly cost is £351.

The table in full

Daniel Pickering-Fletcher, head of people at Aspinal of London, said of the findings: “It’s no surprise that London came out on top, as there are 1.4 million British freelancers working across all sectors and with the rapid growth of freelancers and entrepreneurs, we’ll soon see 40% of the global workforce in self-employed roles.

“It’s clear that cities around the world are adapting to changing times. Working remotely and flexible hours are quickly replacing typical workdays to help people achieve a healthier work-life balance.”