Side Hustle Statistics 2026: How Many Americans Actually Have One
Source: Bankrate / YouGov Side Hustle Survey (2025)
Key Takeaways
- → 27% of U.S. adults say they currently have a side hustle in 2025 — down from 39% in 2023 and the lowest share since 2017 (19%) (Bankrate/YouGov)
- → Four major surveys disagree on side hustle participation by more than 20 percentage points — 16% to 39% — because each defines “side hustle” differently (Pew/Bankrate/Fed/BLS)
- → Only 5.2% of the U.S. workforce (8.4 million people) officially held a second job in July 2023 — the most conservative measure of all (BLS)
- → 58% of people with a side hustle earn $100 or less per month from it; only 14% clear $1,000/month (Bankrate/YouGov)
- → Gen Z is the most likely generation to have a side hustle in 2025, at 34%, ahead of Millennials (31%), Gen X (23%), and Boomers (22%) (Bankrate/YouGov)
- → 31% of gig workers say the income is necessary just to make ends meet, not extra spending money (Federal Reserve SHED)
- → Gig workers report meaningfully worse financial well-being than people without one: 65% say they’re doing okay or comfortable, vs. 75% of non-gig workers (Federal Reserve SHED)
Search for side hustle statistics and you’ll get a confident-sounding number on every page. It’s usually somewhere between a quarter and a third of Americans. What you won’t get is any acknowledgment that four major, credible surveys disagree with each other by more than 20 percentage points. None of them are asking the same question.
We pulled the actual survey data — Bankrate/YouGov, the Federal Reserve, Pew Research, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — and laid the numbers side by side instead of picking whichever one sounds most shareable. The gap between them is the most useful finding here. It’s the kind of nuance that gets lost every time someone repeats a round number without asking where it actually came from.
1 How Many Americans Actually Have a Side Hustle?
Side hustle statistics range anywhere from 5.2% to 39% of Americans, depending entirely on which survey and which definition you use. There is no single correct number.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Self-identified side hustle rate, 2025 | 27% | Bankrate/YouGov, June 2025 |
| Self-identified side hustle rate, 2023 (peak) | 39% | Bankrate/YouGov |
| Self-identified side hustle rate, 2017 | 19% | Bankrate/YouGov |
| Adults doing any gig work in the past month | 20% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
| Adults who have EVER earned via a gig platform | 16% | Pew Research, 2021 |
| Adults who worked a gig job in the past 12 months | 9% | Pew Research, 2021 |
| Workforce officially holding a second job | 5.2% (8.4M people) | BLS Contingent Worker Supplement, 2023 |
The gap isn’t a data quality problem — it’s a definitions problem. Bankrate asks people to self-identify as having a “side hustle,” which captures anything from a serious Etsy shop to occasionally reselling old clothes. The Federal Reserve asks about any gig activity in the past month, a slightly narrower window. Pew specifically asks about earning money through an online gig platform, which excludes plenty of informal side income entirely. The BLS counts only people who report an actual second job in a structured labor survey. If you’re comparing any other “make money online” statistic across sources, check the definition before you trust the number.
2 How Much Does a Side Hustle Actually Pay?
A median of $200 a month — not the $885 “average” that gets quoted everywhere, which is skewed upward by a small number of high earners.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average monthly side hustle income | $885 | Bankrate/YouGov, 2025 |
| Median monthly side hustle income | $200 | Bankrate/YouGov, 2025 |
| Side hustlers earning $100/month or less | 58% | Bankrate/YouGov, 2025 |
| Side hustlers earning over $500/month | 25% | Bankrate/YouGov, 2025 |
| Side hustlers earning over $1,000/month | 14% | Bankrate/YouGov, 2025 |
Context matters more than the headline figure. A virtual assistant side hustle or a well-run digital-download Etsy shop can realistically land in the $500+/month tier with consistent effort. More casual activity — occasional data entry gigs, one-off resale — tends to land closer to the $200 median instead. Neither is wrong. They’re just different categories of activity that all get lumped into one survey question.
3 Is Side Hustle Income Necessary, or Just Extra Cash?
For most people it’s supplemental and part-time — but for roughly 3 in 10 gig workers, it’s genuinely necessary to make ends meet.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gig workers who say the income is essential to make ends meet | 31% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
| Gig workers spending under 5 hours/week on it | 70% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
| Gig workers spending under 35 hours/week on it | 96% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
| App-based platform workers with a 3-month emergency fund | 42% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
| Non-gig workers with a 3-month emergency fund | 56% | Federal Reserve SHED, 2024 |
The time data undercuts the “side hustle as second career” narrative: 96% of gig workers spend under 35 hours a week on it, and most spend under 5. That’s consistent with a genuine side activity, not a disguised full-time job. But the financial well-being gap is real and shouldn’t be waved away — if you’re relying on side income to cover essentials rather than build savings, that’s worth planning around deliberately rather than discovering by accident. A realistic home setup that keeps costs low matters more when the income itself is inconsistent, and it’s part of why online income rarely looks as clean as it’s marketed.
4 Who’s Most Likely to Have a Side Hustle?
Gen Z leads every generation at 34% in 2025, and younger adults broadly are far more likely to have gig income than older ones across every survey checked.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gig platform earners (ever), ages 18-29 | 30% | Pew Research, 2021 |
| Gig platform earners (ever), ages 30-49 | 18% | Pew Research, 2021 |
| Multiple jobholders whose 2nd job is independent-contractor work | 22.8% | BLS, 2023 |
Every source agrees on direction even where they disagree on magnitude. Younger adults consistently report more side hustle and gig activity than older ones, whether you’re looking at Bankrate’s generational breakdown or Pew’s age brackets from four years earlier. That’s consistent with flexible, at-home work appealing to people earlier in their financial lives. It also lines up with why so much “side hustle” content is aimed at people considering a bigger leap away from a single employer altogether.
Compare the Surveys Yourself
Methodology
Every side hustle statistic in this article traces to a named government agency or survey organization, checked against its own published report rather than a secondary summary. Several commonly cited “solopreneur income” figures found during research could not be traced to any primary source and were dropped entirely rather than included as unverified filler.
- Sources consulted: 13, across government labor statistics, a Federal Reserve household survey, an academic-grade research organization, and one commercial polling firm
- Sources cited: 4
- Data range: August 2021 to June 2025
- Last verified: September 17, 2026
- Update schedule: Annually, when Bankrate/YouGov and Federal Reserve SHED release their next survey waves
- Limitation: No survey defines “side hustle” consistently, so participation rates range from 5.2% to 39% depending on methodology and question wording — that disagreement is this article’s central finding, not a gap papered over. No 2026-dated primary survey wave was available at research time; the freshest data is June 2025 (Bankrate/YouGov) and 2024 data published May 2025 (Federal Reserve).
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Americans actually have a side hustle in 2026?
It depends entirely on who’s asking and how. Bankrate’s 2025 survey found 27% of adults self-identify as having a side hustle. Pew found only 16% have ever earned money via a gig platform. The Federal Reserve puts monthly gig participation at 20%. The BLS, counting only official second jobs, puts it at 5.2%. There’s no single correct number — only different definitions.
How much money does the average side hustle actually make per month?
The average is $885 a month, but that figure is skewed by a small number of high earners. The median — a far more representative number — is just $200 a month. More than half of people with a side hustle (58%) make $100 or less.
Is side hustle income necessary or just extra spending money?
For most people it’s supplemental, but not for everyone. The Federal Reserve found 31% of gig workers say the income is necessary just to make ends meet, and gig workers overall report lower financial well-being (65% doing okay/comfortable) than non-gig workers (75%).
Which generation is most likely to have a side hustle?
Gen Z, at 34% in 2025, followed closely by Millennials at 31%. Both are well ahead of Gen X (23%) and Baby Boomers (22%), according to Bankrate’s 2025 survey.
How many hours a week do people spend on their side hustle?
Not many, for most people. The Federal Reserve found 70% of gig workers spend under 5 hours a week on gig activities, and 96% spend under 35 hours. That means side hustles are overwhelmingly a part-time addition, not a second full-time job. That said, most “make money online” ideas still fail when people expect part-time hours to produce full-time income.
Are side hustles becoming more or less common?
It depends which measure you track. Bankrate’s self-identified side hustle rate has fallen from 39% in 2023 to 27% in 2025. But the Federal Reserve’s broader “did any gig work in the past month” measure actually rose, from 16% in 2021 to 20% in 2024. That suggests fewer people call what they do a “side hustle,” even as informal income-earning activity itself grows.
What percentage of the workforce officially holds a second job?
5.2% of total U.S. employment — about 8.4 million people — held a second job as of July 2023, per the BLS Contingent Worker Supplement. This is the most conservative of all the figures cited here because it counts only confirmed multiple jobholders, not any form of side income.
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Sources & References
- Bankrate / YouGov. “Fewer Americans Have a Side Hustle in 2025.” bankrate.com. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Board. “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 — Employment and Gig Work.” federalreserve.gov. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- Pew Research Center. “The State of Gig Work in 2021.” pewresearch.org. Accessed September 17, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements — 2023.” bls.gov. Accessed September 17, 2026.
Last updated September 17, 2026