Digital Nomads: Global Lifestyle Rise and Local Impact

Digital nomadism is a lifestyle that utilizes remote working to travel and live around the world. More and more companies are allowing employees to work from home, in another state, or even on the other side of the world. This brings new breakthroughs in what used to be full-time and part-time jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic may be one of the factors driving this trend. By September 2020, nearly 40% of people currently working in the EU were working remotely full-time due to the pandemic ( Ahrent et al., 2020 ). After the epidemic, remote working has become a trend, and many countries have also relaxed visa regulations for digital nomads, causing the number of digital nomads to continue to grow.

However, as digital nomadism grows, it also brings many changes to cities. Their life and consumption not only affect the local economy, but also promote new sharing economic models and community sharing culture, and promote cross-cultural exchanges and cooperation. But this surge in "freedom" has also triggered the anger of local residents, who view these workers as"invaders" , depriving them of their land use rights, driving up the cost of living, raising local prices, and introducing different cultural habits and other issues.

Digital nomads by ...

“According to statistical surveys, digital nomads are predominantly young, educated white men with high incomes and a high quality of life. Their advanced education makes it easier for them to find lucrative remote jobs.

Main occupations digital nomads worldwide 2024

We find that Software Dev, Web Dev and Startup Founder are the three main occupations of Digital Nomads in the world in 2024.

They are international, closely related to the Internet, and relatively flexible in terms of working hours and location. And the salary is good enough to support the life of digital nomads.

Most visited countries by digital nomads worldwide 2024

Digital nomads often choose a country or city that suits their unique lifestyle based on several key factors.

They generally prefer locations that offer a good working environment, high quality of life, reliable internet, favorable visa policies and an affordable cost of living.

Popular destinations such as the USA, Thailand and Spain have these characteristics and have become the first choice for remote workers to balance productivity with exploring and enjoying new cultures and experiences.

In order to attract highly qualified remote workers and self-employed people to live and work locally to stimulate the economy, many national governments have implemented digital nomad residency schemes, thus promoting local economic development.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, when much of the world went into lockdown and issued shelter-in-place orders to limit global mobility, some places started rolling out "digital nomad visas" to attract remote jobs, primarily in the communications technology industry to live and work abroad.

Digital nomad visa

Currently, 66 countries offer digital nomad visa programs, and new countries are joining every day.

A digital nomad visa is a temporary resident visa that allows people to stay in one country while working remotely. These visas represent a significant shift in government management strategy. Previously, digital nomads needed to declare themselves as entrepreneurs or workers and have a company sponsor their stay (a long, expensive and bureaucratic process), or declare themselves as "tourists" (but extend their stay if caught by the authorities , risk deportation), while digital nomad visas, which have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, offer a legal path to flexible mobility through remote work.

Tax

Digital nomads who travel the world with limited or no fixed abode. And this is not a marginalized group. (In 2018 it was estimated that there were some 4.8 million workers in the United States alone.) Current tax rules based on residency criteria mean that people living in a particular area contribute to local public goods. However, remote work could disrupt the link between budgeted revenues from personal income tax and budgeted expenditures on local infrastructure-i.e., paying taxes in one area while using public infrastructure in another. And digital nomads risk becoming residents who pay taxes nowhere and may not enjoy the same tax regime as regular settled employees.

What do we bring to the local community?

We noticed that digital nomads frequently use coworking spaces. The number of coworking spaces has significantly increased. In 2010, only 21,000 people globally worked in coworking spaces; by 2019, this number had risen to 2.17 million (Mazareanu, 2020). As the number of digital nomads increases, they need to find reliable workplaces, creating a new demand for office space, leading to the emergence of more coworking spaces.

Preferred workplaces for digital nomads worldwide in 2023

Here are two interviews from digital nomads.
Let's have a look at what they think about coworking space!

These trends suggest that shared offices may be attractive to digital nomads and may boost tourism in various countries. One example of such a hotspot is Berlin, Germany. According to the German Association for Coworking Spaces (BVCS), since the last count in 2020, as of October 2023, there has been a 52.6% increase in the number of cities with co-working spaces in Germany (from 334 to 572), with Berlin having the most (221). Tobias Kollewe, President of the German Coworking Space Association, said "The number of coworking spaces has been steadily increasing for five years and we are convinced that this trend will continue."

Coworking space for digital nomads is about community, interaction with locals, deep connections with people, learning and a balanced life. All participants agreed that a sense of community and meeting like-minded people are important advantages of coworking. For the local economy, coworking space brings them a new platform for the development of the sharing economy and the exchange of different cultures.

How can digital nomads, who usually stay in one place for 1-6 months, find flexible housing solutions? The answer: shared living .

A for-profit, privately managed and delivered shared housing that represents a corporate response to the housing / workspace needs of single urban professionals, Shared Residence is typically priced above market rents and offers flexible subscription-based housing and services.

Following the Global Financial Crisis housing boom, shared living has become mainstream in real estate.

Institutional investors are seizing opportunities in shared living due to excess vacant office space, remote work technology, increasing job instability and mobility, and the popularity of the space-as-a-service (SPaaS) sector.

In response, private investors are heavily funding new residential projects like micro-apartments and Airbnb rentals.

In 2023, shared living is a multi-billion dollar industry with a myriad of operating companies (Casier, 2023). More recently, shared living has been recognized as one of the most resilient real estate asset classes in times of market turbulence, such as the COVID-19 outbreak (Bergan & Dufty-Jones, 2023; Casier, 2023; Schlesinger, 2022)

Micro-apartments usually do not exceed 35 square meters and typically feature an integrated living-sleeping area (a separate room with furniture), a bathroom with shower and cooking facilities. They usually include communal spaces and facilities and the tenancy is usually temporary.

These new housing projects appeal to two main types of residents: those who are highly mobile and frequently move for opportunities and jobs, and those who prefer true urban locations with easy access to transportation.

The following five groups are shared living's primary customers：

Single Persons

Students

Digital Nomads

Young Professionals

Expats

Globalization and social citizenship

With the rise of the Internet and remote work, people are no longer bound by geography, leading to changes in lifestyles and philosophies. Digital nomads foster globalization and create multicultural communities, introducing new communication and work modes. Coworking spaces help people connect and support local economies, advancing the sharing economy.

However, some view digital nomads as a "soft cultural invasion" that disrupts local lifestyles and causes tax and resource distribution issues. This trend challenges our concepts of citizenship and liberalism within state-based societies.