BOULDER, CO. – The average digital nomad is a married female Gen Xer who is an experienced employee working at a company at least 40 hours a week in the writing, education and training, or administrative career fields.

She has health insurance, is saving for retirement, and has a bachelor’s degree or higher. This according to the latest FlexJobs survey.

“There are a number of misconceptions about digital nomads, such as that only young millennials going through a phase are interested in the lifestyle, that they’re freelancers that don’t earn a decent living, or they can’t grow a great career while traveling, none of which is validated by this data,” said Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs.

“Practicing nomads can be found across demographics and career fields, and they’re hard-working professionals who for a variety of reasons like work-life balance, poor local job market, or a passion for travel, are committed to earning a living in a nonconventional way,” Sutton said.

Interesting highlights include:

Only 27% of respondents identified as Gen Z or millennials, with     41% identifying as Gen Xers, and 32% as baby boomers or the silent generation.

  • 61% of digital nomads are married and 39% are unmarried.  26% of digital nomads have children 18 and under.
  • More digital nomads are employed by a company (35%) versus being freelancers (28%) or business owners (18%).
  • 38% say they feel less stressed financially as a digital nomad and 34% say there is no difference in financial stress than when they worked a traditional job.
  • Nearly one fifth (18%) report making six figures or more and 22% make between $50,000 and $99,999. The average U.S. worker today earns roughly $46,641 a year.
  • 74% of digital nomads have health insurance and 55% are saving for retirement.
  • The majority work from their hotel/hostel (46%), coffee shop or local dining establishment (45%). Less than one-fifth work in co-working spaces (19%).
  • 31% of married digital nomads have spouses who travel with them full-time, 38% travel with them part-time, and 32% don’t travel with their digital nomad partner at all
  • Only 6% have participated in travel programs for nomads, such as Remote Year or Hacker Paradise. Just 5% have used co-living spaces, such as Outsite or Nomad House

To help digital nomads and other job seekers interested in finding remote jobs that allow candidates to be based from anywhere in the world, FlexJobs has also compiled the Top 30 Companies Currently Hiring for Work-from-Anywhere Remote Jobs.This list is based on an analysis of remote job listings from over 50,000 companies in the FlexJobs database between Jan. 1, 2018 – Aug. 31, 2018. The companies on this list had the most job listings that met the following criteria:

  • A “Work-from-Anywhereremote job without location restrictions
  • Fully remote jobs that don’t require any time in the office
  • Offer either full-time or part-time schedules

Mental health counselor, full stack developer, sales operation specialist, and marketing designer are examples of work-from-anywhere jobs currently hiring.

Visit https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-digital-nomad-survey-insights-remote-lifestyle/ for the full report.