The Countries With The Most Expensive Freelancers – United Arab Emirates Ranks 13th

New research has found the most countries with the most expensive freelancers, with United Arab Emirates placed 13th. 

The study, conducted by invoicing software company Bookipi, used freelancing platform Upwork to find how much freelancers in 40 different countries charge on average per job. They looked at several popular services, including logo design, video editing, and data entry. For each service in each country, the starting and end price were collected, and an average price overall was calculated.  

Australia ranks as the country with the most expensive freelancers, with the average price of a job costing $594.56. Australia was also found to be the most expensive country to hire a freelancer for creative writing, web programming, or mobile app development projects. 

Following in second is India, where the average price of hiring a freelancer was found to be $501. They were also ranked as the most expensive freelancing country for data entry, at an average price of $75.92 per job. 

Morocco ranks third with an average freelancer rate of $402.03 per job. They were also the second most expensive country for video editing, costing an average of $122.35 per job. 

Ranking as the fourth most expensive country to hire a freelancer is Saudi Arabia, with an average rate of $401.64 per job. Rounding up the top five is Turkey, with a cost of $393.88 per freelancing job.  

The top 20 countries with the most expensive freelancers 

Rank	Country	Average price per freelancing job
1.	Australia	$594.56
2.	India	$501.00
3.	Morocco	$402.03
4.	Saudi Arabia	$401.64
5.	Turkey	$393.88
6.	Nepal	$382.50
7.	Portugal	$380.03
8.	Serbia	$347.07
9.	United Kingdom	$343.52
10.	France	$329.71
11.	Ukraine	$314.51
12.	Canada	$298.40
13.	United Arab Emirates	$285.52
14.	Pakistan	$284.17
15.	China	$273.97
16.	Macedonia	$262.75
17.	United States	$243.72
18.	Vietnam	$223.67
19.	Italy	$201.33
20.	Spain	$187.00

At the other end of the scale, Columbia has the least expensive freelancers, costing an average of $72.13 per job – 87% less than hiring an Australian freelancer on average. 

Brazil follows as the second east expensive, with an average rate of $79.81 per freelancing job, while Argentina ranked third least expensive with an average cost of $80.84. 

Speaking on the findings, Tim Lee, CEO and founder of Bookipi, said, 

“Our team members come from various corners of the world – Asia, Africa, Europe, and America and their life stories and experiences contribute to our team’s richness. Working closely together has taught me an immense amount about appreciating different cultures. As a result, we were interested in how these different experiences are reflected through the costs of freelance workers worldwide. 

“Typically, countries with robust economies and high living standards tend to host the most expensive freelancers, which the data reflects by finding Australia as the most expensive freelance country. Although this is true for India, the second country to appear in the ranking, freelancers can command a higher rate thanks to their specialized skills and expertise in industries such as software development, IT services, and digital marketing. 

“We hope this ranking will help empower freelance workers around the world to know their worth and be more confident in fairly pricing their services.”