VergeSense Reveals Findings from the 2025 Workplace Occupancy & Utilization Index

February 24, 2025 at 09:15 AM EST

VergeSense experts share workplace usage and design strategies that align with company goals and employee needs; global trends and 2025 workplace predictions

VergeSense, the leader in occupancy intelligence, unveiled the findings of the VergeSense 2025 Workplace Occupancy & Utilization Index—the largest first-party commercial real estate space utilization data set in the world.

The 2025 Workplace Occupancy & Utilization Index examines trends in global space design and space utilization from 2024, and includes year-over-year comparisons from 2023 and 2022. This edition analyzed over 190,000 spaces from over 200 customers covering more than 156 million square feet of commercial real estate to understand the space utilization trends across offices around the globe.

The data reveals opportunities to improve workplace efficiency and eliminate in-office friction. These findings can help workplace leaders develop thoughtful strategies and implement data-driven changes to optimize existing spaces and better plan for the future.

A few of the key insights of the Index include:

Space mix is inefficient. In 2024, Desks still made up more than half of the space mix, while collaboration spaces made up less than a quarter. Despite flexible work behaviors, many employees are still operating in offices built for fully in-person workstyles.
Enclosed spaces are the most popular spaces. In 2024, enclosed spaces like Offices (20%), Conference Rooms (21.55%), and Collaboration Rooms (21.05%) had the highest active time usage.
Time spent at Desks is on the rise. Nearly one-third of total time usage of Desks is passive, but in 2024, Desks saw an increase in active time usage from 14.4%-15.6%. As more people return to the office, the demand for personal space has grown. We expect to see this trend continue as capacity usage rises in 2025.
Meeting rooms are too big. Hybrid and virtual collaboration have become an integral part of the workday, leading to fewer in-person meeting attendees. Despite this, 44% of meeting rooms are set up for 5+ people. This creates an opportunity for workplace leaders to adjust room size and layouts to better support employee needs.
The North America (AMER) region has the lowest average capacity usage, again. Compared to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region (10.7%) and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region (10.8%), AMER has the lowest average capacity usage at 7.6%, highlighting resistance to in-office mandates compared to other regions. This pattern has continued year over year.

“We’ve been navigating workplace changes since our founding in 2017 and have learned that companies are missing out on opportunities to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and enhance employee and workplace experience,” said Dan Ryan, CEO and Co-Founder at VergeSense. “We know from first hand customer experience that utilizing data to create adaptable spaces is enabling leaders to remain agile in a dynamic work landscape and will be crucial as occupancy levels continue to rise.”

To read and download the complete report findings, including the complete list of key findings and 2025 predictions, visit this page for more information.

About VergeSense

VergeSense provides the leading Occupancy Intelligence Platform trusted by global enterprises to guide workplace decisions that optimize spaces, reduce costs, ensure sustainability, and improve employee experience. Through AI-powered recommendations to make decisions that build the foundation for flexible workspaces of the future, businesses leverage VergeSense to evaluate their portfolios, optimize their spaces, and automate workplace operations.. Over 200 enterprise customers like Cisco, Autodesk, and BP partner with VergeSense to optimize over 156 million square feet of real estate across 50 countries. For more information, visit www.vergesense.com.