The U.S. telecommuting population is a diverse group, scattered across the country doing different jobs for different companies. But we share certain characteristics. Most of us work alone in our home, for one.

In a recent survey of 758 U.S. households, research firm IDC found that in 85% of home-office households there's just one telecommuter.

On the other hand, telecommuters are fairly divided in the amount of time spent working at home, according to IDC's telecommuter profile. About 35% spend 3 to 5 days per month at home, 14% spend 1 to 2 weeks per month at home, 26% work from home 3 to 4 weeks per month, and 24% work from home fulltime.

Equally diverse are the industries telecommuters work in and the jobs we perform. The largest share of telecommuters in the IDC survey work in healthcare (11%). Other industries include professional, scientific and technical services (10%), communication (9%), manufacturing (9%) and educational services (8%).

"Telecommuting is not industry specific, but rather is associated with the type of work that lends itself to being engaged in away from the corporate environment. Nearly one in four telecommuters works in sales," according to the IDC report. Other popular roles include knowledge worker (21%), general management (17%) and general customer service (12%).

IDC's research paints a picture of a healthy, growing community of teleworkers. Today there are 8.9 million telecommuter households, and IDC expects to see 250,000 added in each of the next four years.

But if you believe everything you read, not all home office workers want to remain homebound. Putting scientific research aside for a minute, consider some of the preliminary submissions in a contest Offices2Share.com is running for home workers who want to escape to an offsite office location.

Offices2Share.com matches professionals, small businesses and start-ups with available short-term, ready-to-use office space. In its contest, the firm is asking participants to cite their Top 10 reasons for wanting to move their work life outside the home and into a real office. The winner of the contest -- which ends on Feb. 28 -- gets 12 months of free rent at qualifying U.S. office spaces listed with Offices2Share.com.

"The responses that we have been receiving confirm the research that shows that a home office is often not the most ideal work space solution," said Jeffrey Landers, president of Offices2share.com.