No, Digital Nomads Are Not Taking Over the World
And the stats prove it
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Like the old saying goes, to assume makes an Ass out of U and Me.
To assume that the media is correct in its hyperbolic negative treatment of digital nomads makes you an ass. Or at least someone who might want to check their stats before leaping on the anger bandwagon.
Conjecture is one thing. Solid research is entirely another.
This is an important topic because, like the scapegoating of all groups, misinformation about the role of Digital Nomads perpetuates mistrust, anger, and an us vs. them mentality that literally does nothing to further our world.
Before you bemoan digital nomads taking over the world and ruining it for their own gain, you might want to check yourself. Because the chances are you’re shouting at the wrong group of people.
Fact check no. 1: There are not THAT many digital nomads out there
Here are the stats you don’t see on the front page of the Daily Mail:
There are a reported 35 million digital nomads in the world. 17 million of these come from America.
Out of these 17 million, 52% of them don’t travel internationally at all which eliminates around 8.16 million from the worldwide total of people who sit on Balinese beaches all day. Assuming, that is, all other nationalities exclusively travel internationally which is unlikely.
But let’s say they do. Let’s say that every other digital nomad is an international traveler. That’s around 27 million digital nomads on the road.
Bear in mind however that digital nomads are a remarkably static bunch. Only 17% of roaming digital nomads visit more than 5 countries each year. The majority of them visit only one or two each year.
So now we’re down to around 4.6 million digital nomads annoying the world with their traveling.
Tops.
Ferry them into one destination and that would be cause for alarm. But they’re not. They’re spread across the world, just like tourists.
Just like 963 million tourists.
It’s easy to shout at digital nomads, to get angry at them. Lord knows some of them come across as pretty smug and that does nothing to help.
But when it comes to tourism, they are a drop in the ocean.
Fact check no. 2: Digital nomads are not overtaking the streets
It’s not my personal traveling style but I know a lot of digital nomads are guilty of only ever traveling to digital nomad hotspots. The big ones according to Nomad List are places like Bangkok, Bali, Lisbon, Zagreb, and even Timisoara in Romania.
You’d think that these places would be overrun.
Yeah, not so much.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Zagreb and I visited Timisoara earlier this year and I can tell you now, you’ll hardly see any digital nomads out and about.
In fact, I’m extremely surprised to see Zagreb on that list. I know that many of the local digital nomad meetups only ever attract around 20–30 people, and half of them are locals simply interested in the lifestyle.
Even in specialty coffee shops — a natural DN habitat — I didn’t see a single person typing away in Timisoara. And I know it’s not the done thing in Zagreb, where coffee breaks are revered and never include a laptop.
The fact of the matter is, unless you storm a co-working space, you’ll likely not find many digital nomads about at all.
Of course, this is all anecdotal. Nomad List does not include all digital nomads. So I turned to my friend who happens to be a doctor in migrant studies and specializes in digital nomads. She’s engaging in some groundbreaking research about who digital nomads really are and where they really travel to.
She tells me that aside from artificially-made DN hotspots like Bansko in Bulgaria (a small skiing town utilized by digital nomads during the low summer season), digital nomads in big cities are few and far between. In her words, their presence is mostly overblown by the media and again overshadowed — by orders of magnitude — by tourists.
So there you have it.
Fact check no. 3: Digital nomads are not (always) the ones pushing up rents for locals
I’m throwing myself into the piranha pit here and taking Portugal as an example. Lisbon in particular is one of those digital nomad hotspots and (some) locals are not happy about it.
Here’s a nasty little line from a Lisbon activist reported on Euronews:
She claims rent and property values are particularly affected, as digital nomads gobble up short-term rentals that are all already under immense pressure from tourists and foreign investors.
In part, she’s right. Short-term prices in Lisbon are indeed high and rising. That has had a knock-on effect on the local communities as landlords turn their previously long-term local apartments into lucrative Airbnbs.
But the blame for this doesn’t solely lie at the feet of digital nomads.
First, a landlord has a choice to throw out their long-term renters in favor of Airbnb. They could…not. Yeah, they want to make as much money as possible, Portugal is a poor European country, etc. But I’d bet my bottom Euro that these landlords are not at the sticky end of the poverty ladder. Average-wage workers are not generally the ones with second properties to rent out.
Second, there are an estimated 19,000 digital nomads in a city of 3 million residents and 5.4 million yearly tourists. 19,000 sounds like a lot, but do we really believe it’s enough to have an impact on the whole of Lisbon’s housing market?
Third, many digital nomads I know don’t use Airbnb and their ilk at all because it’s too damn expensive.
Because here’s something many people don’t consider. Just because a digital nomad can pay more for their rent doesn’t mean they do. There’s an almost reverse snobbery in this department. DNs take pride in securing the lowest rent possible and sneer at those who overpay.
Fourth, foreign property investment is a huge problem in Lisbon, as is a lack of affordable housing. But let’s not forget, digital nomads are, by and large, property renters not property owners. That’s more of an ex-pat thing. And whilst some may rent off these foreign investors, if the prices are too high, they probably won’t (see above).
Whilst I’m not obtuse enough to believe that digital nomads have no impact on the city’s rents, I don’t believe that all the problems exclusively lie at the feet of nomads.
That Euronews quote is correct. Lisbon is under immense pressure from tourists and foreign investors. Of which digital nomads are arguably neither.
Especially the majority who live in one place for months on end.
Sometimes I wonder why I stick up for digital nomads so much. Oftentimes I’ll meet some and think urgh, no wonder no one likes you.
But what annoys me more than culturally insensitive digital nomads is people who point the finger at a single group and shout it’s all your fault!
Like I always say, blame the system, not the people.
If you want to get pissed off about a country’s immigration policy — including how they deal with digital nomads — blame the government. Blame an overreliance on an unstable economic model like tourism. Blame greedy, short-sighted local landlords.
Blame capitalism if you must. It’s normally capitalism’s fault.
And remember. If you see a few digital nomads hanging out, that doesn’t mean they’re taking over. They’re not. Besides, is migration always a bad thing?
I don’t think so.
