In 2015, freelancers were rated as the happiest occupation in China. "Discretionary time", "workplace freedom" and "high income" are the main reasons why people choose to become freelancers. Especially in today's rapid development of the Internet, the normal working conditions of "996" have brought a lot of pressure to people's work and life. More and more people, especially practitioners related to software development, want to become a professional Freelancers.
In order to deepen people's understanding of freelancers in the software development industry, Programmer Inn has conducted this survey on freelancers in more than 10 provinces, municipalities and special administrative regions, including Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan. The survey report conducts statistics and analysis on the age composition, gender ratio, occupation type, income level and life pressure of freelancers.
Most popular in developed regions
In 2015, professional social platform LinkedIn conducted a survey of freelancers, and the results showed that Chinese freelancers accounted for the largest proportion of first-tier cities. From the results of this survey, the geographical distribution of freelancers related to software development also has the same attributes.
Freelancers are mainly concentrated in the area east of the "Heihe-Tengchong line", which is also the main concentration area of China's population, with a dense population and a developed economy. In particular, developed municipalities and provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the most favored by freelancers engaged in software development.
For developers who are just starting out as freelancers, there are more opportunities in first-tier cities, and they can accumulate resources faster and develop their personal businesses. At the same time, they can also find work faster if they choose to forgo freelancing.
More male groups and more single females
Among freelancers, men far outnumber women. Such a big difference may be relevant to the software development industry. On the whole, the number of male practitioners is far greater than the number of female practitioners in the IT industry and small software development. In addition, more than 60% of female practitioners are single, while the proportion of male singles is less than 50%.
Young people are the main force, and the older they get, the more "not popular"
Judging from the survey results, the majority of the freelancers in the software development industry are young people, with more than 70% under the age of 30. About 25% of the group are between the ages of 30-40. The proportion of people over 40 years old is less than 5%. Overall, there is a trend of "the older you are, the less the number".
The number of designers is the largest, and receiving orders on the platform is the main way
设计师、后端工程师和移动端开发人员是整个软件开发行业自由职业者的主要群体，占70%左右，其中设计师以UI设计师为主，女性占46.81%，男性占53.19%。其次是产品经理和前端工程师，各占9%左右。7.65%的其它群体主要是全栈工程师，销售以及项目管理等。
在软件行业，一半以上的自由职业者主要是通过在各大平台接单的方式赚取收入。14.06%的自由职业者是通过自己开发一些小项目的方式变现，而专门写技术文章和做技术培训的只有3%左右。其余28%的自由职业者其收入主要来自于开发、运营个人网站和通过朋友关系承接项目等方式。
工作时间长短不一，收入难保可观
自由职业者可以自如安排工作时间，每天的工作时间也是长短不一。从调查结果来看，30%的自由职业者每天工作不到6小时，50%的自由职业者每天工作6到10小时。然而，有接近20%的群体每天工作10个小时以上。由此可以看出，作为一名自由职业者，并没有人们常说的轻松自如。
30%的群体年收入低于8万，50%的群体年收入不到12万，因此并不是人人都可以通过自由职业获得月薪过万的收入。但是不可否认的是，相对的，也有很大一部分群体实现了较高收入，30%以上的自由职业者年薪在20万以上，其中10%左右年薪在30万以上。
生活虽有压力，仍然保持希望
调查结果显示，在软件开发行业的自由职业者，只有19.70%的群体通过自由职业获得了满意的收入，面对生活毫无压力。有超过50%的自由职业者表示，虽然自由职业给自己的生活带来了一定的压力，但是还可以承受。另外，仍然有20%以上的群体感觉生活压力很大。
在生活压力面前，46.97%的群体会继续做一名自由职业者，而16.67%的人群表示考虑放弃自由职业。1/3以上的自由职业者对是否继续从事自由职业持观望态度，视实际情况做决定。
虽然有80%以上的自由职业者感觉作为自由职业者面临一定的生活压力，但是这并不影响人们对自由职业的看好，60%以上的群体认为自由职业是趋势，只有12%左右感觉自由职业没有前途。另外，有四分之一对自由职业的前景没有一个很清晰的认识，自由职业是好是坏自己也不明了。
总结
在我国，经济发达的城市是从事软件开发行业自由职业者的主要聚集地，年轻化是自由职业者的显明特点。自由职业者群体，特别是女性从业者的单身问题值得人们关注。
设计师、后端工程师和移动端开发者是自由职业者的主要群体，在各大平台接单是他们赚钱的主要方式。
“自由工作”是人们给自由职业者贴的标签之一，但是从调查结果来看，尽管自由职业者工作时间长短不一，长时间工作也是难以避免的。另外，在软件开发行业，月薪过万的收入并不高，从这个角度而言，软件行业的自由职业者很难界定为“高收入人群”。
大部分群体看好自由职业的前景，但在巨大的生活压力面前，很多人对是否坚持自由职业持不确定态度。