Digital nomads: data reveals where your next workation should be

*Not all factors have been included in the PR table- please see the full dataset here in the ‘overall’ tab- please note, this is for journalist reference use only and should not be distributed. 

Bangkok, Thailand ranks in first position, with a final nomad score of 7.11 out of ten. With stunning temples at every turn, contrasted with the infamous Khao San road, loved by backpackers and nomads alike, you’ll be spoilt for choice living in the Thai capital. Bangkok ranked as having the second lowest average nightly Airbnb cost, while also faring extremely well when it came to WiFi performance. In particular, the location is perfect for budgeting digital nomads, having the lowest average price per meal at €2.57, meaning you can indulge in boat noodles and mango sticky rice until your heart’s content, without hurting your wallet. 

Buenos Aires, Argentina ranks in second position with a nomad score of 7/10. with its European façade and Old-World charm. Having recently launched a digital nomad visa, it could be high time to add Buenos Aires to your workation list. The city has the lowest average cost for a pint of domestic beer (€1.41) and very reasonable average meal costs (€7.54). Buenos Aires also boasts the lowest average nightly Airbnb costs (€66), and 68% of the population live in close proximity to public transport, making travelling around the city an absolute breeze. 

Madrid and Barcelona place consecutively in third and fourth positions, with Madrid scoring 6.96/10 and Barcelona scoring 6.58. With Spain’s digital nomad visa allowing people of various residencies to stay in the country for up to a year, both could be good options for those wanting to soak up some Spanish sun, tapas and sangria. While the two Spanish cities aren’t as suitable for budget travellers as Bangkok and Buenos Aires, both boast good average download speeds at 200mbps+, a significant number of coworking areas so that you can meet like minded nomads, and rank highly on the safety index. Madrid’s public transport system ranks higher than Barcelona, but does compromise when it comes to average temperature- Madrid sits at 15 degrees on average, while Barcelona sits at 18.2.  

Tokyo, Japan ranks in fifth position with 6.44/10, and while this may be on the average traveller’s bucket list, it may be off the radar when it comes to desirable digital nomad locations. What nomads may lose in terms of higher average Airbnb nightly costs (€182), Tokyo more than makes up for it in terms of number of coworking spaces (142), safety index (89/100), public transport (82.4% of the population live nearby), and average meal prices (€6.11). 

We hope you find this release useful. If you do end up using it, we would appreciate a link to https://www.rebootonline.com/. Crediting this piece means we can continue to send you future releases that may be beneficial.

If you have any further questions or would like any additional detail, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Many thanks,

Alasdair

Methodology

1. Digital PR agency Reboot Online wanted to assess which countries are the best to be a Nomad worker, looking at a multitude of different factors
2. The first variable assessed was average data on airbnbs in each country, sourced from insideairbnb. This included data on the number of airbnbs, the average cost per night (in local currency, converted to euros using the googlefinance tool), and the average rating
3. The next variable is average broadband download speed (mbps) as determined by the speedookla index
4. Next, the number of bookable offices available on office.co was used as an indicator of the number of working areas available in each country. Note this isn’t a definite value, only an indicator.
5. Next, the safety index of each city was obtained from globalresidenceindex, which calculates its index score based on a number of factors such as homicide rate, global peace index, security/political risk, and natural disaster risk.
6. The % of population within reasonable distance to public transport was obtained from two sources. The first source (OECD) shows the % of the population within 10 minutes of a public transport stop. The second source (sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu) shows the % of the population within 0.5 kilometres of a low-capacity public transport point, or 1 kilometre within a high-capacity point). Data from the first source was used first, and missing data was substituted with the second source
7. The yearly average temperature data was obtained from Wikipedia and weath-and-climate.com
8. Finally, numbeo was used to get average data on the cost of a cappuccino, a pint of beer, a meal at an inexpensive restaurant (not a fast food restaurant), and the general cost of living index of that country
9. Each country was then ranked based on these variables. If a country was missing a variable, the average of the column was assigned to it, so as to not hinder or help it in the ranking.