US States Ranked by Self-Employment Income Efficiency in 2026

The results of being self-employed vary across the United States, with many factors shaping how well a person can run their own company.

Here at ProfitDuel, we took a deep dive into each state's self-employment percentage and how much self-employed individuals make up of that state's income share.

Key Takeaway: Where does self-employment pay off most?

Georgia has the highest self-employment efficiency ratio in the country, at 4.66x. Only 5.6% of the state’s workforce is self-employed, below the national average of 6.0%, yet that small group earns 26.1% of all income made in the state, the largest share nationwide.

Washington, D.C., Maryland, Florida and Mississippi round out the top five.

States with the highest self-employment efficiency rations

In comparison, we found that Montana has the lowest self-employment ration in the dataset, at 1.95x

Montana has the lowest self-employment efficiency

The state's self-employment rate of 9.1% is the second-highest in the country, yet those workers earn just 17.7% of all income made in the state.

17.7% ÷ 9.1% = 1.95x, the lowest ratio of any state.

South Dakota, Maine, North Dakota, and Vermont post similarly low ratios, as shown in the table below.

The difference between Montana and Georgia is substantial. Self-employed workers earn 4.66 times their expected share of state income in Georgia, compared with 1.95 times in Montana which is a gap or more than double.

States with the lowest self-employment efficiency ratios

Several states with the lowest efficiency ratios also have some of the highest self-employment rates in the country, which isn't necessarily what you'd expect to see.

Which states have the most self-employed workers?

The efficiency ratio measures how self-employment income compares with the size of the self-employed workforce, but it's also worth looking at self-employment rates on their own too.

Montana has the highest self-employment rate in the dataset, at 9.1%, followed closely by several other rural states shown in the table below.

Notably, none of these states rank in the top 20 for efficiency. On its own, a high self-employment rate doesn't predict high self-employment earnings.

States with the highest self employment rates

At the other end, West Virginia has the lowest self-employment rate in the dataset.

States with the lowest self-employment rates

What the data tells us about self-employment income

The figures show considerable variation in how self-employment pays off across the US and the two measures (self-employment rate and self-employment efficiency) don't move together in any consistent way.

Georgia has one of the lowest self-employment rates in the dataset, at 5.6%, but the highest efficiency ratio. Montana has one of the highest rates, at 9.1%, but the lowest efficiency ratio. The states where self-employment is most common are largely not the same states where it pays the most.

This pattern lines up with the type of work involved. States near the top of the efficiency ranking, including Georgia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., have self-employed populations concentrated in consulting, law, real estate and finance, fields where independent professionals routinely command high fees.

States near the bottom, including Montana, the Dakotas and Maine, have self-employed populations concentrated in agriculture, seasonal tourism and small trades, where income tends to be lower and less predictable.

For anyone running a side hustle or considering going independent, that distinction matters more than the raw number of self-employed people in a state. A state with a lot of self-employed workers is not automatically a state where self-employment pays well, and a state with relatively few self-employed workers, like Georgia, can still be one of the most rewarding places to do it.

Methodology

We analyzed self-employment data for all 50 US states and Washington, D.C., using figures from the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).

The self-employment rate is the share of each state’s workforce classified as unincorporated self-employed. Income share is self-employment income as a percentage of total personal income earned in the state.

The efficiency ratio was then calculated by dividing each state’s self-employment income share by its self-employment rate. A ratio of 1x means self-employed workers earn exactly the share of state income their numbers alone would predict. A ratio above 1x means they earn more than that; a ratio below 1x would mean they earn less, though no state in the dataset falls below 1x.

Puerto Rico is included in the source rate data but excluded from the efficiency ranking, as no comparable income-share figure was available.

The ACS does not distinguish between full-time self-employment and part-time or side hustle income, so the figures reflect all unincorporated self-employment activity in a state, not side hustles specifically.

Self-employment income share ÷ self-employment rate = efficiency ratio