Remote work has become increasingly popular, especially amongst Gen Z and single millennials, but it isn’t limited to this demographic.
The option to work from anywhere has opened up the ability to live almost anywhere in the world. But some cities are better suited to a remote lifestyle than others.
How We Ranked the Top 10 Cities for Remote Work
Now, not all cities are created equal, and some are more preferable to live in and work remotely from than others. Several ranking factors come into play when looking at which city is best for remote work. According to a recent study by HR firm, Workmotion, they can be divided into three categories – workation, liveability, taxes, and cost of living.
Workation includes whether or not remote working visas are in place, the remote working infrastructures available, and the overall visitor experience. Liveability includes the safety of each city, access to housing and healthcare, mobility options available, and people’s level of happiness. Lastly, taxes and cost of living are considered – what taxes are remote workers subject to and the cost of housing and a monthly basket of food.
Let’s now take a look at the top 10 cities in the world for remote work, as ranked according to workation, liveability, taxes, and cost of living.
1. Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, located on Spain’s east coast, is the best city to live in as a remote worker. Aside from its architecture and art, Barcelona has an overall ranking score of a perfect 100. This is thanks to a specific digital nomad visa in place, a great overall visitor experience, as well as fantastic mobility and access to healthcare. Its income tax score does let it down slightly, however.
2. Dubai, UAE
The lively city of Dubai, famous for its incredible architecture, luxury shopping, and incredible nightlife, ranks as the second-best city to live as a remote worker. It has an almost-perfect score of 99.9 thanks to its digital nomad visa, amazing safety, security, and mobility, and attractive tax regime.
3. Prague, Czech Republic
Following in a close third place is the city of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, which spans both banks of the Vltava River. With an overall score of 99.8, it’s hot on the heels of Dubai and Barcelona thanks to its specialist digital nomad visa, housing affordability and access, and general safety and security.
4. Madrid, Spain
We move back to Europe now and the capital city of Spain, Madrid, which takes fourth place with an overall score of 99.3. This is mainly due to its digital nomad visa, favorable mobility and healthcare access, and overall visitor experience. It does have a rather poor income tax score.
5. Melbourne, Australia
The city of Melbourne, with its vibrant art scene and amazing architecture, takes fifth place with an overall score of 98. While the city has a restricted work and travel visa, it has an almost-perfect score for its remote working infrastructure, favorable access to healthcare, and overall citizen happiness.
6. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam, the liberal capital city of the Netherlands, comes in at 6th place with an overall score of 97.7. The city has a specialist digital nomad visa in place, a perfect mobility score, great remote working infrastructure, amazing access to healthcare, and high (no pun intended) overall happiness of its citizens.
7. Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal’s capital city on the, is not only famous for the pasteis de nata – it’s the seventh best city to live in for remote workers with a score of 94.3. A digital nomad visa is in place, and it ranks highly for safety and security, access to healthcare, mobility, and overall visitor experience. Its tax regime, unfortunately, pulls its score down slightly.
8. Sydney, Australia
We move back to the land down under and the city of Sydney in Australia, most famous for the Sydney Opera House. The city ranks as the 8th best place for remote workers with an overall score of 91.7 thanks to its almost-perfect remote working infrastructure, healthcare access, and citizens’ overall happiness.
9. Gran Canaria, Spain
We’re back in Spain with the island of Gran Canaria, famous for its contrasting white sand and black lava beaches. The island comes in at 9th place with an overall score of 91.3. The island ranks favorably for housing affordability, safety and security, mobility, and access to healthcare. Again, Spain’s tax regime lets it down slightly.
10. Reykjavik, Iceland
Rounding off the top 10 is Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik, and home to some of the most important Viking museums. It has an overall score of 90.3 and scores highly in almost every category except for food basket affordability and taxation. High food costs and taxation take away from Reykjavik scoring highly, unfortunately.
The 5 Worst Cities for Remote Work
We’ve seen the best; now it’s time for the five worst cities for remote work in the world:
1. Bangalore, India
Bangalore in India tops the list of the worst cities for remote work with a pitiful score of 50. There is some light at the end of the tunnel with perfect scores for housing and food basket affordability, although every other category lacks.
2. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
With an overall score of 62.8, the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro follows behind Bangalore as the second worst city for remote work. Thankfully, its perfect housing affordability score does help it out a bit.
3. Gdańsk, Poland
Following closely behind Rio, with a score of 62.9, Gdańsk in Poland takes the (un)coveted 3rd place for best of the worst. The only categories helping it out a bit are its mobility and housing affordability scores.
4. Istanbul, Turkey
Coming in fourth place with an overall score of 65.5 is Istanbul in Turkey. The city ranks pretty poorly in most categories, although it does flourish in mobility and its housing and food basket affordability scores.
5. Gothenburg, Sweden
Last but not least is Gothenburg in Sweden, rounding out the top five worst cities to live for remote workers. It boasts an overall score of 65.8, with decent scores in its remote working infrastructure, access to healthcare, mobility, and general citizen happiness categories. However, cost of living is high, bringing overall scores down.
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