Digital Nomadism Continues To Grow, Despite The “Back To The Office” Trend

The digital nomad lifestyle seems to have gone mainstream, according to a new report by MBO Partners, with 17.3 million American workers currently describing their work situation that way. All told, about 11% of U.S. workers self-identify as digital nomads, according to the Digital Nomads 2023 report.

Since the pandemic started, the number of digital nomads has tripled, growing by 131% from 2019 to 2022, the researchers found. Annual growth leveled out to 2% since 2022.

“What we’re seeing here is there is a much, much higher propensity of Gen Z to be digital nomads than any other group of people at the front end of the funnel of people coming into the workforce,” says Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners. “Expect digital nomads to be greater percentage of total workforce.”

The trend is good news for worker happiness. 80% of digital nomads say they are highly satisfied with their work, versus 59% of people who aren’t digital nomads.

Digital nomads also tend to be happy with their income levels, with 82% of digital nomads say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their income. Among workers who aren’t digital nomads, 69% report the same satisfaction levels. Their satisfaction may be influenced by their happiness with jobs that allow them to travel and ability to lower their cost of living through “geoarbitrage” by staying in places where necessities are more affordable than in the U.S.

However, reporting on their income accurately is hard, the researchers note, because some are part timers or only travel while working for part of the year. One in five say their household income is less than $25,000 a year, while 72% say it is $75,000 or more.

Almost 80% of American job holders who are allowed to work remotely come into the office at least two days a week, the report found—and their number are down 2% since last year. The number of traditional workers who were digital nomads tripled since 2019, though.

Meanwhile, the number of self-employed digital nomads rose growing by 14%.

Although many employers are calling their teams back to the office, the pandemic ushered in new attitudes about where to work. The younger the worker, the more likely they are to want to work from wherever they want. 58% of digital nomads are in either Gen Z (21%) or millennials (37%). And 59% of digital nomads say they plan to continue their lifestyle.

“Gen Z has a much higher propensity to say, ‘I’m not going to work for you if you want me in the office,’” says Everson. “People put a high value on mobility.”

Men are also more likely to embrace the trend than women. 56% are men, 43% are women and 1% are nonbinary.

Everson sees the change as a reflection of a broader distrust in central authorities, an idea for many that extends to traditional workplaces and that is increasing across all age demographics. “They’re not tethered to traditional structures, whether it’s a job or a house,” he says. “Everything is much more flexible.”