Home-based workers perform work duties at home, rather than travel to a separate workplace.

The American Community Survey (ACS) includes a question asked on the method of transportation usually used to get to work for those aged 16 and over who were employed and at work in the previous week. Home-based workers are those who reported ‘‘work from home’’ on this question

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) includes work schedule questions that are asked of employed respondents who are at least 15 years old. The work schedule section includes detailed questions related to respondents’ employment history and job details, including whether respondents worked from home during a typical week in the previous month and whether there were any days when the respondent worked entirely from home.

Working from home is sometimes referred to as “telework.” Beginning in August 2020, the Household Pulse Survey asked participant households their telework status in relation o the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the 2020 Household Pulse Survey:

• More than a third of U.S. households reported working from home more frequently than before the pandemic, but the percentage who made the switch varied widely across sociodemographic groups.
• In the highest-earning households—those with annual incomes of $200,000 or more—73.1 percent switched to telework. This is more than double the percentage (32.1 percent) of households with incomes between $50,000 and $74,999, a range that includes the 2019 median U.S. household income ($65,712).
• Lowest-earning households were less likely to switch to telework. Only 12.7 percent of households earning under $25,000 reported teleworking in lieu of in-person work.
  
• Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were more than three times as likely as those with a high school education or GED only to have an adult in their household substitute in-person work for telework 61.7 percent compared to 19.1 percent.

To access the list of tools available, go to our Data Tools and Apps. For ACS data, access the data.census.gov tool. Other available information is accessible at Census Survey Explorer.