I’m a freelance writer and conduct more than 90% of my work remotely for clients dotted around the world from the UK and US to Portugal, Denmark and Asia. And I’m not the only one – remote working has never been more popular and accepted, and the uptake of people embracing it (the digital nomad, if you will) is only gaining momentum.
That makes remote working facilities an essential and daily consideration in my and many other people’s lives.
But what does that mean, exactly? It encompasses a wide range of seemingly disparate things that all affect the day to day of someone working remotely. It can incorporate basic things like transport costs, internet speeds and the price of a cup of coffee to more all encompassing factors like general cost of living and average monthly salary.
Taking all these factors into account, Powwownow has broken down a global top 15 of the best cities to work in remotely, based on InterNation’s Expat City Ranking Report for urban worklife. To help quantify the ranking, they assigned each city a score from one to 15 for each of the categories I mentioned above and combined them to decide an overall winner out of a maximum 75.
Coming out in the top spot, perhaps surprisingly, is beautiful Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. Known for its cheap living costs, Prague’s ace up its sleeve is its situation within the Schengen Zone, which means EU citizens don’t need a visa to work there. As such it has become a hub for remote workers from across Europe.
Other cities also stood out for specific reasons. Swedish capital Stockholm offers the fastest internet with an average speed of 22.5mbps, compared to, say, Johannesburg in South Africa which averaged just 6.7mbps. But where it fails on internet speeds, Johannesburg fights back on coffee cost, and is home to the cheapest cup at £1.44 ($1.67). It scores highly too on the number of co-working hubs for remote workers to congregate, work and network in, which propels it into second place overall.
And while London makes fifth place on the list, not one US city appears in the top 15.
Here’s the full list:
Rank | City | Score out of 75 |
1 | Prague | 52 |
2 | Johannesburg | 45 |
3 | Auckland | 44 |
4 | Amsterdam | 43 |
5 | London | 42 |
6 | Munich | 42 |
7 | Frankfurt | 41 |
8 | Beijing | 40 |
9 | Hamburg | 38 |
11 | Stockholm | 38 |
10 | Luxembourg City | 38 |
12 | Basel | 36 |
13 | Manama | 35 |
14 | Zurich | 34 |
15 | Copenhagen | 32 |