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The Best US Cities for Digital Nomads in 2023
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Work-from-home doesn’t have to mean actually sitting at home at a desk. As a digital nomad you can travel the country and the world, while still working remotely. Sounds like fun, right?
Using our highly-selective ranking system, we found the best US cities for digital nomads. So what are you waiting for? Pack a bag, bring a laptop, and let’s go explore.

Digital nomads have been around since the early 1980s, but only gained popularity recently.1 Back then, people used laptops, tablets, and PDAs to stay connected on the go, and the term even made it into a 1992 travelogue.2 Office culture meant that most workers couldn’t fully embrace the nomadic lifestyle, though.
Nearly thirty years later, the term has come to mean something new again. The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to work-from-home and reduced the need for many working professionals to have a physical office. Laptop computers, Wi-Fi, and smartphones have made it possible to work from just about anywhere nowadays, and digital nomads are highly mobile and “location independent,” as described in Digital Nomads: In Search of Meaningful Work in the New Economy.3,4 Many digital nomads view it as a lifestyle and commit long-term, but they don’t travel as often as you might think. (They’re different in that regard from van lifers.)
In short, digital nomads have the freedom to travel and work from anywhere. With the increasing prevalence of remote work plus the ubiquity of mobile, wireless technology, anyone is able to become a digital nomad and move somewhere new.
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#10 San Francisco, CA
The Bay area has everything you could want as a digital nomad, including fast internet speed (#3 in the nation) and tons of state recreational areas to explore. You should be wary of the high monthly rent, but don't worry—when you're ready to bounce, there's an airport 11 miles away.

#4 Seattle, WA
Home to some of the largest companies in the world (Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft), Seattle is more than just a rainy seaport. And sure, the rent is expensive, but Mount Rainier National Park is close by (only 44 miles away from the city), so you can hike and explore all 236,000 acres to your heart’s content.

#3 Austin, TX
With 123 state recreational areas and an airport nearby, Austin is a great place to explore! The city also has free public Wi-Fi hotspots and average internet speeds over 100 Mbps. Austin is the highest-ranked Texas city on the list, which is saying something since the state has three cities in the top ten.

#1 Atlanta, GA
With average monthly rent hovering around $2 per square foot, Atlanta is one of the most affordable cities on our list. It also has Wi-Fi averages over 100 Mbps and nearly 140 public hotspots. But what takes it over the top? A large share of remote jobs available, temperate weather, and over 115 state recs areas make Atlanta a great city for digital nomads.

What do digital nomads need to work remotely?
The two most important things digital nomads need are a remote job, a laptop, and a cell phone with data. From there, it’s up to you!
If you found the perfect place, don’t worry! There are five easy steps to fixing your Wi-Fi, and if that doesn’t solve it you can boost your Wi-Fi signal and run a speed test to check for problems. Of course, you may end up needing to switch providers, and we have a list of favorites to help with that.
Now if you’re going to go off-the-grid nomad, there are a couple other things we suggest … For starters, in rural areas water, snacks, and a working cell phone are a must. You’ll want to find mobile hotspots if you're traveling around, but satellite or DSL internet should work if you're staying in one place.
Finally, if you're on a budget, we have some tips. Laptops and phones with long-lasting battery life are key, as are public Wi-Fi hotspots (Seattle has the most).
Just like in the 1980s, you just need a remote-friendly job and mobile technology to make your dream of being a digital nomad become reality.
Recap
If you're ready to travel the world and work from anywhere, the digital nomad life is for you. Reviews.org’s top ten cities for digital nomads in 2023 are
- Atlanta, GA
- Portland, OR
- Austin, TX
- Seattle, WA
- Phoenix, AZ
- Houston, TX
- Dallas, TX
- Chicago, IL
- Las Vegas, NV
- San Francisco, CA
But maybe none of those ten cities strike your fancy. That’s totally okay! We dug into our research and found the top 100 metro areas for digital nomads. With our list, you can move anywhere in the country and still find yourself with beautiful national parks, fast Wi-Fi, and an airport nearby.
The best US metro areas for digital nomads
Methodology
To rank the best cities for digital nomads, we used the mean average metro area speed from HighSpeedInternet.com’s list of the top 100 US metros with the fastest internet speeds. We ranked each metro on seven different factors to find which ones would be the best for digital nomads.
To find the percentage of available remote jobs, we searched Indeed.com for each metro.
Each measurement was normalized on a 0-1 scale with 1 corresponding to the measurement that would most positively affect the final score and 0 corresponding to the measurement that would most negatively affect the final score. These adjusted measurements were then added together with the weights mentioned below to get a score of 100.
Each metro was ranked based on the factors below:
- Average Download Speed Mean (20%) - a faster speed positively impacts the score
- Number of Free WiFi hotspots (20%) - more available hotspots positively impacts the score
- % of available remote-friendly jobs (10%) - higher percentage of remote-friendly jobs within a 25 mile radius positively impacts the score. Data pulled from Indeed.com on 01/18/2023.
- Average monthly rent cost per square foot (30%) - lower monthly rent costs positively impacts the score
- Miles from Nearest Airport (5%) - closer airports positively impacts the score
- Miles from Nearest National Park (5%) - closer national parks positively impacts the score
- Average Annual Temperature (5%) - higher annual temperatures positively impacts the score
- Number of State Recreation Areas (5%) - more state recreation areas positively impacts the score
Sources
- Roberts, Steven K. “High-Tech Nomad,” Popular Computing, 1984, pg. 116-122.
- Malamud, Carl. Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue. Prentice Hall, 1992, pg. 326
- Hannonen, Olga. “In search of a digital nomad: defining the phenomenon.” Information Technology & Tourism 22, no. 3 (September 2020): 335–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-020-00177-z
- Woldoff, Rachael A.; Litchfield, Robert C. Digital Nomads: In Search of Meaningful Work in the New Economy. Oxford University Press, 2021, pg. 4–6.
- “State pages,” The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot™ Directory. Accessed May 31, 2022.
- Trevor Wheelwright and Peter Holslin, HighSpeedInternet.com, “The Top 10 Fastest and Slowest Metros for Internet.” Accessed June 15, 2022.
- “Average Rent in the U.S,” Rentcafe.com. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “Job Search | Indeed,” Indeed.com. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- Staff, “S. National Parks by State,” National Park Trips, January 1, 2021. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “Closest Airport to,” Closest airport. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “S. Climate at a Glance Background,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “Average Annual Temperatures for Large US Cities,” Current Results: Weather and Science Facts. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “United States,” U.S. Climate Data. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “Closest National Parks,” Stacker. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “America’s Parks,” stateparks.com. Accessed January 19, 2023.
- “Historic ParkScore® Rankings,” Trust for Public Land. Accessed January 19, 2023.
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