A digital nomad is a person who follows a lifestyle focused on having geographic freedom to travel while being able to work. This is possible because they take their office with them wherever they go. He would generally just need his laptop and/or cell phone to work.
A digital nomad is on the move at all times, and can access new destinations and work via the Internet.
If you are interested in the subject, let’s take a look at the latest figures and trends that will help us understand this lifestyle much better.
Current lifestyle trends of digital nomads
A study conducted by Passport-Photo Online revealed some of the most important facts about digital nomads. From them we can glimpse trends that are changing everything.
The number of digital nomads has been on the rise since last 2020. About 71% of them have a full-time job and 29% only part-time. However, the rate of satisfaction they get from finding a work/life balance is 85%.
Regarding the most common type of work for digital nomads, here the trends are not so clear. The most common are related to IT in general, education and training, creative services, sales, marketing and public relations, finance and accounting, as well as consulting, coaching and research.
As far as the work area is concerned, many digital nomads work directly in the hotel or in the apartment they have rented for a few days, setting up a kind of improvised office. On the other hand, the concept of co working spaces is increasingly widespread; it is possible to find workspaces worldwide through online platforms, to facilitate the task of the digital nomad.
The study also reveals the preferences on accommodation. The first option (51% of respondents) choose to stay in hotels. Forty-one percent prefer to stay with friends and family (if and when possible). AirBNB type accommodations become the 3rd option, with an influx of 36%. And there are also those who stay in cars or vans (21%) or in hostels (16%).
About 36% of digital nomads are self-employed, and have as clients several companies to which they offer their services. 33% have managed to create their own company. With a slightly lower percentage, 21%, we have those who have a position in a company.
Another of the aspects on which the study focused is the average age of digital nomads. 29% of respondents were over 45 years old and 11% were over 60 years old.
Most digital nomads are happy with their lifestyle (88%). They feel that this balance between work and travel helps them enrich their lives every day.
Interestingly, the study also surveyed the favorite destinations of digital nomads. These are: Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, Portugal and Spain.
These countries are popular because they have very interesting characteristics: a good climate, a low cost of living, many points of interest to visit, and the ease of getting a visa (or may not be needed to access the destination).
Security and geolocation: challenges faced by digital nomads
The digital nomad depends entirely on the Internet to do his work. Therefore, they will always choose to connect from places that have broadband access, even having their own connections that they can take from one place to another.
The problem is that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of cybercriminals trying to steal users’ data, and they may even impersonate their identities.
Simply connecting to an open network for work could be a blunder. To avoid any problems, digital nomads use VPNs.
There could also be some geolocation issues for these people to do their work (for example, they might not have access to certain content due to geolocation restrictions). Again, the VPN solution is the most interesting.
It is the acronym for Virtual Private Network (or Virtual Private Network in Spanish) and allows the digital nomad to connect to a network in which their private data will be masked, hidden, to navigate in a completely secure way and avoid any kind of intrusion (even if they connect to an open WiFi network).
These are some of the current trends that allow us to better understand the profile of the digital nomad in 2022.
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