Digital nomads have been here for a while, much longer than the recent boom after the COVID-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t mean the lifestyle is always the same. What changed and where is nomadism going? Here’s an overview of the latest trends.
There are more digital nomads than ever before
While the COVID-19 pandemic wrought havoc in just about any other place in the economy, digital nomadism flourished after the pandemic. There are 50% more nomads now than there were in 2019. Nomads from the US alone grew from 4.8 million in 2018 to 15.5 million in 2021.
This is great news because it means that what has been seen as a passing fad pre-corona is here to stay. And what’s more, countries are seeing it too. Places like Portugal are introducing new legislation to codify digital nomads in the law and other countries like the Czech Republic have open (if complicated) administrative ways for digital nomads to stay and work. In short, the rising number of digital nomads makes this lifestyle more accessible to everyone.
Companies are more open to remote work
It’s not just countries but companies as well who are becoming more open to having fully remote employees. As seen among US nomads, two-thirds of them now have full-time remote employment and only one-third are freelancing. And about a half of businesses that were asked have self-reported that remote work does not affect the job performance of employees.
This is a huge shift within the economy since, before the pandemic, remote work was seen as inherently worse quality work. With the experience of forced lockdowns, many employers have been open to remote work as a possibility and this is great news for digital nomads.
Nomads are different
Digital nomads used to travel a lot more than they do now. Only about 17% of nomads travel to more than five countries a year. Nomads seem to like staying a little longer in their new homes. This might also be the result of better laws and visa rules in some countries. It might also partially explain another statistic - almost a third of nomads expect to return to the office within a year. It seems that as the digital nomad lifestyle is more accessible to everyone, there are more people dipping in and trying it out.
While there might be some purists out there thinking that these people aren’t committing to the lifestyle hard enough, it is good news for everybody involved. The more people see digital nomadism as a normal thing to try, the more companies will be pushed to offer remote work as a part of their job offer. Overall, it is great news that people are trying out something new and widening their horizons.
Digital nomads are happy
The statistics seem to be very favorable when it comes to satisfaction. According to passport-photo.online, about 88% of nomads are happy with their lifestyle and nearly 85% are happy with their work. It is clear that nomads often have better opportunities since about 61% of them have bachelor's degrees and 31% have master’s degrees which might be a partial explanation for their work satisfaction. However, being able to work and travel certainly also takes the edge off when it comes to a bad job (coupled with not having to sit in the office). Even from this short overview, it is clear that digital nomads are not just here to stay, they are growing in numbers every day.
