Digital nomads are workers who choose a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle, allowing them to travel while working remotely.
MBO Partners 2026 State of Independence study found that 20.3 million American workers are currently digital nomads — up 9.7% from 2025 and 183% since 2019. Digital nomads now make up roughly 12% of the U.S. workforce. Seven years of steady growth confirm this is no longer a fringe lifestyle but an established part of the American workforce.
There are three main drivers of this growth:
Remote work's normalization. The pandemic-era shift to remote work expanded the ranks of nomadic traditional employees and legitimized geographically distributed teams.
Gen Z's (born 1997-2014) entry into the workforce. Known for prioritizing travel and experience, Gen Z is accelerating nomadism among both traditional employees and independent workers.
Employer buy-in. Companies increasingly see hiring digital nomads as a win-win, a way to attract and retain top talent while giving skilled workers the lifestyle they want.
Digital nomads are often portrayed as young technology professionals working remotely from exotic destinations. But today’s digital nomad workforce is far more diverse in age, background, and lifestyle. While 77% of digital nomads come from the two youngest generations - Gen Z (35%) and Millennials (42%) - their average age is 37, and 9% are 55 or older. Over a third (36%) are women, about half (51%) are married, and 17% travel with kids.
Digital nomads also work across many fields, including those facing skilled labor shortages: IT, creative services, sales, marketing, finance, R&D, and consulting. The unifying theme of these professions is that they use digital tools to produce work that can be performed remotely.
Digital nomads’ satisfaction with their work remains strong and consistent with prior years: 86% of digital nomads report being highly satisfied with their work, 11% satisfied, and just 3% dissatisfied. Because nomads prioritize travel and experience, satisfaction tends to follow directly from having the freedom to pursue that lifestyle.
Nearly all current digital nomads (94%) say they may continue as digital nomads over the next 2-3 years, 67% definitely, and 27% maybe, but only 13% have sustained the lifestyle for more than five years. Constant travel paired with work is demanding, and burnout can be a challenge.
Employee nomads pose a variety of compliance risks. As in prior years, 13% say their employer doesn't know they're nomadic, and another 18% say their company lacks a formal policy, but their manager has informally approved it. Together, nearly a third of employee-nomads operate without formal organizational visibility or approval of their nomadic arrangements.
This creates exposure on multiple fronts: potential violations of local employment and tax laws and regulations, and increased cybersecurity risk, since IT can't secure or monitor environments it doesn't know about.
Digital nomadism has moved from niche to mainstream. As remote-work technology advances and worker expectations shift, the boundary between where people live and where they work will continue to blur, and digital nomadism will continue to grow.
For organizations, digital nomads are a source of highly skilled labor but also a potential source of compliance, legal and tax risk. Creating digital nomad policies and procedures makes it easier to attract and retain digital nomads while reducing the risks of employing them.