Everyone’s working lives have been turned upside down, with the vast majority now working from home for the foreseeable future. But who said working from home had to mean from your country of origin? The rise in the need to work from home has led to a number of countries introducing working holiday visas to encourage people to come to their country to experience the world while still being able to connect with their workplace.

For our Digital Nomad Index, we looked at a range of factors from the cost of internet speed and scores on the Global Happiness Index, to the monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment, amongst other factors, to reveal the best cities to be a digital nomad in.

Canada is revealed as the world’s number one country to be a digital nomad in

Canada ranks as the best country to be a digital nomad in the world, scoring highly on searches for remote jobs, speed of fixed broadband and searches for remote jobs, with an overall score of 74.35 out of 100. The UK and Romania follow in second and third place, with the UK scoring 63.43 and Romania 62.28 out of 100.

The best countries for cheap and reliable internet connections

When you’re working from home, the most important thing you need is a fast and reliable internet connection.

In terms of fixed broadband speed, Singapore had the fastest internet speed of 229.42 Mbps download speed, with Hong Kong not too far behind with 215.19 Mbps. The majority of countries analysed were found to charge over £30 as an average monthly cost of fixed internet speed, however exceptions included Romania, where the average monthly cost of internet is £6.13.

If you’re constantly on the go and want to use your mobile for most of your remote working, you may want to consider the UAE or China for their average mobile internet speeds, which were revealed as 129.62 Mbps and 124.39 Mbps respectively.

The worlds happiest countries 

The research also looked at the countries with the highest scores on the World Happiness Index report, to see which countries might be the most enjoyable to work from.

The World Happiness Index report is a survey of global happiness that ranks countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.

The research found that Finland topped the list, with a score of 7.81, with Denmark (7.65), Switzerland (7.56), Norway (7.49) and the Netherlands (7.45) following closely behind it.

The countries most accepting of nomads

Finally, the research looked at the existing migrant population of each country, as well as whether they were currently offering working holiday visas, to reveal the countries which are likely to be the most accepting of digital nomads.

All countries in the top ten were offering working holiday visas at the time that the research was conducted, with the visa allowing nomads to take a job within a foreign country.

When looking at the percentage of migrants in each country, UAE topped the list with a staggering 87.9% of its population falling under this category. This was followed by Kuwait (72.1%) and Luxembourg (47.4%), though first place nomad destination Canada also ranked relatively high, with just over 20% (21.3%) of its population being migrants.

Damian Hanson, co-founder of CircleLoop comments:

“2020 saw everyone’s working lives turned upside down, with the vast majority of us continuing to work from home for the foreseeable future.

“But who said working from home had to mean from your country of origin? The rise in the need to work from home has led to a number of countries introducing working holiday visas to encourage people to come to their country to experience the world, while still being able to connect with their workplace.

“There is so much technology these days from online communication tools such as CircleLoop, video meeting spaces such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, to collaborative work spaces such as Miro. All of these Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools make it a lot easier to stay connected to teams, and enable employees to work effectively, no matter where in the world they’re working from. We expect the shift to be working anywhere in the world to accelerate in 2021 and beyond, and through our Digital Nomad Index we will keep you updated on the best places to be a nomad in.”