Rachel Lerman

Seattle is one of the top five cities in the U.S. for the growing trend of co-working, or shared office space where workers can rent desks and conference rooms and make use of Internet access and a collaborative environment.Washington has 83 co-working centers, according to a real-estate study, and that number is growing every year.Forty-one co-working centers are established in Seattle, the study from commercial real-estate-research firm The Instant Group reports. Seattle is joined by New York, San Francisco, Austin and Los Angeles on a list of the cities with the most co-working spaces.Washington is outpaced by California, which has 616 co-working spaces, driven by the flourishing tech economy in Silicon Valley.A report from the Government Accountability Office shows more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce is made up of freelancers. That number is likely higher in tech centers, where startups and contractors often rent desks in co-working spaces.WeWork, which has three locations in Seattle, is one of the best-known spaces for tech co-working. It has been joined in Seattle in recent years by companies that similarly appeal to tech tenants, as well as spaces made for artists, lawyers and others.A desk at a co-working space in Washington costs an average of $794 per month, the Instant study says, though rates listed on popular co-working websites suggest that number is closer to $300 to $400 per month, depending on services included.