Work From Wherever Guide
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Remote Work Rankings

If you’ve ever daydreamed of breaking your lease, moving your stuff into storage and traveling, we can really relate. That’s why we created the Remote Work Rankings, which can help you decide where your next personal office will be, based on your needs.

This report was issued on January 11, 2022.

Important: Please check the latest travel restrictions and travel advisories before planning any journey. Visit our travel restrictions map for real-time updates on COVID-19 restrictions and entry requirements of individual countries around the world.Learn more

As of February 18, 2022, the list of countries included on the Work from Wherever Index has been updated to reflect the latest U.S. Department of State’s Level 4 Travel Advisory regarding increased threats of military activity.

Best countries to work from based on 22 factors

Using 22 different factors, we compared 111 countries according to their remote working conditions and opportunities to really explore outside of your usual 9 - 5 routine. We then ranked these destinations based on six categories, such as how lively the social scene is or local costs of living, to help you weigh your options. Using the guide below, find out which countries would best meet your work and life needs so that you can make this daydream a reality.

Click on a category to expand it and see individual factors. Click on a factor's arrow to sort the ranking based on that factor.

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Country
Portugal
Spain
Romania
Mauritius
Japan
Malta
Costa Rica
Panama
Czech Republic
Germany
image/svg+xml
Final Score
100/100
93/100
92/100
90/100
90/100
89/100
86/100
85/100
84/100
83/100
Travel
68/100
72/100
75/100
70/100
70/100
75/100
72/100
84/100
70/100
69/100
Local prices
76/100
71/100
87/100
84/100
60/100
60/100
76/100
77/100
79/100
60/100
Health & Safety
94/100
84/100
71/100
70/100
79/100
89/100
79/100
60/100
84/100
88/100
Remote work
59/100
67/100
67/100
56/100
75/100
60/100
49/100
54/100
54/100
62/100
Social life
91/100
77/100
67/100
2/100
94/100
10/100
47/100
30/100
70/100
100/100
Weather
37/100
30/100
11/100
67/100
38/100
36/100
73/100
78/100
20/100
16/100

The factors presented are in the original data values but the total score and category scores are presented on a 1-100 scale, with 100 being the best (or cheapest), based on the normalization calculations. For more info please see the full Methodology.

Top countries

In the whole world, which three places are the best of the best for working remotely? The results are in - take a look at the top three destinations and find out why they are so well-ranked for working wanderers.

1. Portugal

Final score: 100

Portugal was ranked the all-around best country to work from remotely. How did it claim the title for #1? Because of its mix of accessibility for remote workers, its safety, and climate. Some of the primary reasons include that Po ...

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2. Spain

Final score: 93

Spain claimed the title for the second-best country to work from because of its accessibility when it comes to 9 - 5 nomads. Spain is great for remote work because it has high-speed internet, a variety of co-working spaces and rem ...

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3. Romania

Final score: 92

Romania came in as the third best place to work remotely in the world because it’s quaint and affordable for all types of travelers. Our #3 offers very attractive prices with cheap car rentals and hotel prices, plus affordable lon ...

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Destinations that work for your 9-5

Explore potential Work From Wherever locations that align with your team's local time zone.

Work from Wherever Index - Methodology

Data in six categories has been collected in order to rank countries in terms of their attractiveness for remote work: Travel, Local prices, Health & safety, Remote work, Social life and Weather.

Within these categories, a total of 22 factors have been defined to reach a comprehensive overview of aspects that travelers may encounter and care about when deciding on the destination for remote work.

A total of 111 countries have been included in this analysis. These are the most searched destinations on our site as well as countries / territories that have announced their enhanced visa policies for remote workers.

All sources have been accessed and data retrieved between 1 September – 20 October 2021. The numbers collected are based on the latest available data. See the full list of data sources.

  1. For each of the 22 factors, a weight indicating its importance has been assigned (1 - lowest, 5 - highest). Internet speed is regarded as one of the most important considerations, hence it has been assigned the highest weight together with the remote work visa policies. It is closely followed by factors such as apartment rental prices, local prices, political stability, LGBT equality and English proficiency. Weight 3 has been assigned to factors in the travel and weather categories, local transportation prices, air pollution exposure, car accidents, co-working spaces, social life factors such as going out possibilities, and cultural attractions.
  2. Values within each factor were firstly normalised using formulas: score = 10 * (x - min(X)) / (max(X) - min(X)) and score = 10 - 10 * (x - min(X)) / (max(X) - min(X)) for inverted values (e.g. car accidents where the lower value is better).
  3. The weighted average score of the factors has been calculated for each country.
  4. Lastly, the weighted average score of the factors has been normalised using the formula score = 99 * ( ( (x - min(x) ) / ( (max(x) - min(x) ) ) + 1 to reach the final score on a scale between 1 and 100 (with 1 being the lowest and 100 the highest score).

The same procedure has been applied separately for scores within individual categories to determine category scores (e.g. a Travel score is based on a calculation of four travel factors).

Data sources & factor definitions

Travel

The Travel category comprises four factors:

Accessibility

Defined by the weekly number of flight routes to/from the destination country.

Source: Kayak internal data

Avg. hotel prices

Avg. hotel price per night in USD for standard double room across all hotel types. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Avg. car hire prices

Avg. prices for a car hire per day in USD and across all vehicle classes. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Fuel prices

Euro-super 95, avg. price (USD) for 1 gallon from the period 11 - 17 Oct 2021.

Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com (Data from Oct 11- Oct 17 2021)

The Local prices category comprises four factors:

Apartment rental prices per month (avg. long-term stays)

Apartment (1 bedroom) in Outside of City Centre (USD), price per month.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 20 Sept 2021)

Apartment rental prices per day (avg. short-term stays)

Avg. apartment price per night in USD. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Local transportation prices

Avg. one-way ticket price for public transport (USD) derived from prices in available cities.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

Local food prices

Avg. recommended budget per month (USD).

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

Restaurant prices

Avg. price (USD) for a meal for 2 people (three courses) in a mid-range restaurant.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

The Health & safety category comprises four factors:

Political stability

Political Stability and Absence of Violence / Terrorism (Percentile rank).

Source: WGI (Sourced 7 Oct 2021)

Air pollution exposure

Exposure to PM2.5, micrograms per cubic metre (2019 data).

Source: OECD

LGBT equality

Legal rights, scale 1-100 (worst-best).

Source: Equaldex (Sourced 7 Oct 2021)

Car accidents

Estimated road traffic death rate (per 100 000 population).

Source: WHO

The Remote work category comprises four factors:

Internet speed (Download)

Avg. download speed in mbps on a country level. Results based on tests from 11.04.2021 to 11.10.2021.

Source: Broadband Speed Checker

Internet speed (Upload)

Avg. upload speed in mbps on a country level. Results based on tests from 11.04.2021 to 11.10.2021.

Source: Broadband Speed Checker

Remote work visas

Information on the remote work visas is based on the information sourced from the official websites of the reviewed countries’ authorities. Source: Local & Governmental sites (Sourced: October, 2021)

Source: Local & Governmental sites

Co-working spaces

Estimated number of co-working spaces in a country (per capita).

Source: Coworker (Sourced 4 Oct 2021)

The Social life category comprises three factors:

English Proficiency Index score

The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) score is based on test data from more than 2,200,000 test takers around the world who took the EF Standard English Test (EF SET) or one of EF English placement tests in 2019. Read more about the EF EPI here. For countries where an EF EPI score is not available but where the English language is an official language, the highest EF EPI score of 652 was applied.

Source: EF EPI (Accessed on 29/09/2021)

Going out

Avg. number of bars and clubs in five major cities (per 100,000 inhabitants).

Sources: Open Street Map

Culture

Avg. number of theatres, museums and galleries in five major cities (per 100,000 inhabitants).

Sources: Open Street Map

The Weather category comprises two factors:

Precipitation

Avg. monthly precipitation (in inches) throughout the year, based on major cities.

Source: Weatherbase

Temperature

Avg. monthly temperature (Fahrenheit) throughout the year, based on major cities.

Source: Weatherbase