Remote Workers: These US Cities Are Paving the Way

Washington DC takes first place in paving the way for remote workers

The Covid-19 pandemic forced huge changes onto our population in regard to our working lives, forcing thousands of workers to leave their offices and begin to work from home. Now, in 2022, many of these workers have decided not to return to the office and instead, remain remote. Since, remote work has been consistently on the rise, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, in the last five years, online searches for remote work have increased by 4400%.

There are plenty of upsides to becoming a digital nomad, with freedom of location and the opportunity to explore new cities and even entirely new states, it’s no wonder that so many people are drawn to the lifestyle. Of course, when it comes to remote working, some US cities draw in more of a crowd than others, due to various factors such as cost of living, amenities, quality of life or nearby beaches, national parks or hiking trails.

Seattle @ National Geographic

Recently released census data highlights which US cities have the most remote workers in the country. Washington D.C takes first place, with 48.3% of all its workers working remotely. Next on the list is Seattle, with 46.8% of the working population working remotely, followed by San Francisco, Austin, and Atlanta. It has also been found that Atlanta, Washington D.C, and San Francisco also rank in the top five cities for most coworking spaces per 100,000 residents, with Irvine and Miami taking the other two of the five spots.

According to Pew Research Center data, the most likely kind of professionals to work from home are those with higher salaries and four-year college degrees. Therefore, it is the U.S cities with high costs of living that many upper-income remote workers are able to live in, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C, New York and Los Angeles.

However, for remote workers earning less, there are plenty of cities all around the country that can make great places to live. For those who love to hike and explore national parks, Boulder or Denver in Colorado, St, George, Utah, Sedona, Arizona and Bozeman, Montana are all excellent cities for remote work. If the beach is more your thing, try coastal cities such as San Diego, Tampa, Jacksonville or Houston. The West coast does not have many cities that are affordable and popular with remote workers, except for both Bend and Eugene in Oregon. Instead, remote workers are heading to Eastern cities such as Asheville, North Carolina, Portland, Maine, Wilmington, Delaware or Boston, Massachusetts.

Currently, there are even cities in the U.S that will pay remote workers to move there, such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, Topeka, Kansas and Lincoln, Kansas is giving away 21 lots of land as part of their ‘Free Home Sites’ initiative for remote workers.