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How many digital nomads are there in the world? Researchers have been trying to track this statistic since before the pandemic, but it is challenging since it relies on self-reporting. Consequently, there are a few different figures out there. Estimates vary from around 25 million to over 80 million digital nomads working and traveling today.
Let’s look at some of the recent reported figures and what they tell us about the potential number of digital nomads out there.
MBO Partners – 38.5 million?
According to MBO Partners, in 2023, 17.3 million people, or 11% of American workers identified as digital nomads. They haven’t tried to provide the same kind of detailed figures for a worldwide population. However, it is generally estimated that Americans make up around 45% of the digital nomad population, suggesting an overall population of around 38.5 million.
According to their survey, 10.7 million of these digital nomads have traditional jobs while the other 6.6 million are independent workers.
Nomad List – 80 million?
According to data collected by Nomad List and published in 2024, the numbers are much higher. They estimate that there are already almost 80 million digital nomads worldwide, with more than 37 million coming from the United States and making up 45% of the total. They suggest another 5.5 million from the UK, 3.7 million from Russia, 3.6 million from Canada, 3 million from Germany, 2.5 million from France, 1.9 million from Brazil, and 1.8 million from Australia.
Nomad List admits that their numbers are challenging because it is based on their membership, which can be aspirational as well as actual. Their report also throws up a few more curve balls which may suggest issues with their figures.
They suggest 86% are men, 87% heterosexual, and 59% white. Other reports suggest closer to 58% male and 42% female/ Their respondents also seem to have high-income levels, with 34% earning US$50.000-$100,000, and 35% earning US$100,000-$250,000. This is in stark contrast to findings from Flatio that we recently reported on, which suggests that the majority earn less than US$50,000 per year.
WYSE Travel Confederation – 25.6 million?
Looking at the numbers from a different angle, the WYSE Travel Confederation reported that worldwide in 2017 there were 13,800 coworking spaces with 1.8 million members, and that in 2022 this had increased to 23,500 coworking spaces with 4.3 million members.
According to Flatio, 16.2% of digital nomads use coworking spaces, suggesting an overall digital nomad population of around 26.5 million.
Enterprise App Today – 35 million?
According to Enterprise Apps Today, in 2023 there were 35 million digital nomads worldwide, 17.3 million of which were Americans.
Other demographics they shared were that 35% were employed, and 46% were self-employed, 58% male, 42% female, and 1% other. They also agreed that 34% of digital nomads make between US$50,000-$100,000 per year.
Minaal – 62 million?
The Minaal Blog came up with different figures by coming up with a classification for a digital nomad rather than relying on self-reporting. Their criteria were that (1) they are able to work remotely and travel for a sustained period, (2) they use technology to perform their job, and (3) they actually do travel at least some of the time.
They decided that while there are 66 million remote workers in the United States, somewhere between 21 and 35 million can be classified as digital nomads. They determined that this was about 20% of the workforce.
Extrapolating for the rest of the world, they took that 20% and applied it to 33 developed countries, considering that the digital nomad lifestyle is mostly open to those people. On this basis, they said that there are around 99 million potential digital nomads worldwide.
If we take the mean of their estimate for US digital nomads as 28 million and apply the evidence that 45% of digital nomads worldwide are digital nomads, we get a more conservative estimate of 62 million actual digital nomads worldwide (rather than potential).
But Minaal’s potential estimate fits with the broadly agreed prediction that there will be one billion digital nomads worldwide by 2035.
So How Many Digital Nomads Are There?
So, with so many different estimates out there, how many digital nomads are there in the world? We think that the estimate of around 60 million is probably closer than 40 million. Why?
Most studies of digital nomads focus on US workers, which means that they are probably over-represented in sampling. Consequently, they probably make up a much smaller percentage of the overall digital nomad population than estimated. Moreover, most surveys that we have looked at are conducted in English, which again leads to the under-representation of people from certain regions of the world.
We also think that getting people to self-report can also skew the results, as “digital nomad” is a trending term popular in the Western world. People from other places who travel and work remotely may not self-identify with this word. This is especially the case if they do not travel continuously, but instead split their time between a few key locations.
But the truth is, we need much more sophisticated research to take place to properly understand how many digital nomads there are out there and what they look like demographically.
