Gallery: The 10 best American cities for remote work

While concerns about COVID-19 transmission and stay-at-home orders aren’t keeping people out of the office anymore, remote work is as popular today as it was at the pandemic’s height. The pandemic changed workforce norms, and a few years later, it’s clear there’s no going back to the way things were before. 

As of August, “13% of full-time employees were fully remote, and 30% were working in a hybrid arrangement according to the latest issue of WFH Research’s Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes,” reads a brief about a new ranking of top American cities for remote work from CoworkingCafe. “Now, it looks like companies—as well as entire industries around the world—have adopted remote or hybrid work not just as a trend or a temporary measure, but as the default framework for at least some of their activities.”

Modern employees want to be able to log in from anywhere, and as businesses pivot to meet those expectations, they’re looking for telecommunication hubs to call home. CoworkingCafe’s ranking highlights some of the cities that are checking a lot of boxes for both employees and employers alike.

“Atlanta emerged as the best city for remote workers overall­—and, with Arlington, VA and neighboring Washington, D.C. in such a close race for the podium, the South-Atlantic region was prominent,” the brief continues. “However, with Seattle in second place, and San Francisco hot on D.C.’s heels, the two coasts were equally well-represented in the top-end of the leaderboard. A similar balance was seen further inland, too, with two other Western cities in the top 10—as well as the Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern regions each throwing one high-scoring city into the mix.”

The best cities provide good work infrastructure and have a culture that embraces a balanced lifestyle, with low commute time and a good quality of life. To rank the best cities for remote work, analysts considered 11 metrics within four categories: remote work, economy, connectivity and infrastructure.

Only cities with at least 200,000 residents were considered. Metrics included the share of remote workers in each city, coworking space density, the cost of living and unemployment rate, broadband coverage, walkability, and the density of entertainment establishments, among other things. The top 10 ranked cities can be found in the gallery above. Visit Coworking Cafe’s website for the complete list.