Work from Wherever Index

See the best countries to work from based on your time zone

Working from another country often means working from another time zone. And if your job includes calls or video meetings with colleagues in your home country, the last thing you'll want is to wake up at two in the morning to discuss work.

This report was issued on January 11, 2022.

Important: Please check the latest travel restrictions and travel advisories before planning any journey. Visit our travel restrictions map for real-time updates on COVID-19 restrictions and entry requirements of individual countries around the world.Learn more

As of February 18, 2022, the list of countries included on the Work from Wherever Index has been updated to reflect the latest U.S. Department of State’s Level 4 Travel Advisory regarding increased threats of military activity.

America/New York time zone: These countries are best for work and travel

The country recommendations below are based on your selected work time zone and our ranking of the best countries in the world to work from based on 22 factors. You can see country rankings based only on the factors here.

Select time zone

1. Portugal

Final score: 100

Time zone: Europe/Funchal

Time difference: 4 hours ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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2. Costa Rica

Final score: 93

Time zone: America/San José

Time difference: 1 hour behind

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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3. Panama

Final score: 92

Time zone: America/Panama City

Time difference: 0 hours

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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4. Spain

Final score: 92

Time zone: Europe/Madrid

Time difference: 5 hours ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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5. Malta

Final score: 85

Time zone: Europe/Valletta

Time difference: 6 hours ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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6. Iceland

Final score: 84

Time zone: Europe/Reykjavik

Time difference: 5 hours ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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7. Mexico

Final score: 84

Time zone: America/Cancún

Time difference: 0 hours

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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8. Croatia

Final score: 83

Time zone: Europe/Medulin

Time difference: 5 hours ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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9. Dominica

Final score: 82

Time zone: America/Roseau

Time difference: 1 hour ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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10. Brazil

Final score: 81

Time zone: America/Manaus

Time difference: 1 hour ahead

Border status: Open

Vaccination rate: 0.00%

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Work from Wherever Index

Rankings based on 22 factors

See which countries ranked the highest based on their working conditions and travel opportunities.

Work from Wherever Index - Methodology

Data in six categories has been collected in order to rank countries in terms of their attractiveness for remote work: Travel, Local prices, Health & safety, Remote work, Social life and Weather.

Within these categories, a total of 22 factors have been defined to reach a comprehensive overview of aspects that travelers may encounter and care about when deciding on the destination for remote work.

For each of the 22 factors used to reach Country Rank, a weight indicating its importance has been assigned (1 - lowest, 5 - highest). Internet speed is regarded as one of the most important considerations, hence it has been assigned the highest weight together with the remote work visa policies. It is closely followed by factors such as apartment rental prices, local prices, political stability, LGBT equality and English proficiency. Weight 3 has been assigned to factors in the travel and weather categories, local transportation prices, air pollution exposure, car accidents, co-working spaces, social life factors such as going out possibilities, and cultural attractions.
Time zone differences were given more weight and were assigned a value between 1 and 100 based on a logistic curve where each difference in time zone is given a certain score, with highest score for destinations that are in the same time zone, and the lowest value to a time zone that is far away from the origin. The following logistic formula was applied to reach the city time zone score: = L / (1 + e^(-k*(t - t_0))), where:
1. t is the time zone difference;
2. L is the curve's maximum value;
3. k is the logistic growth rate or steepness of the curve;
4. t_0 is the t value of the sigmoids midpoint
with values: 100 / (1 + e^(-0.75*(t - 5)))
Values within each factor were firstly normalised using formulas: score = 10 * (x - min(X)) / (max(X) - min(X)) and score = 10 - 10 * (x - min(X)) / (max(X) - min(X)) for inverted values (e.g. car accidents where the lower value is better).
The weighted average score of the factors has been calculated for each country.
The weighted average score of the factors has been normalized using the formula score = 99 * ( ( (x - min(x) ) / ( (max(x) - min(x) ) ) + 1 to reach the Country Rank on a scale between 1 and 100 (with 1 being the lowest and 100 the highest score).
The country’s final score was calculated using formula = (c + Σr)/(Σw+3) where:
1. c is time zone score
2. Σr is sum of all factors scores
3. Σw is sum of all factors weights
4. 3 is time zone weight
and the final score has been normalized = 99 * ( ( (x - min(x) ) / ( (max(x) - min(x) ) ) + 1

Data sources & factor definitions

Travel

The Travel category comprises four factors:

Accessibility

Defined by the weekly number of flight routes to/from the destination country.

Source: Kayak internal data

Avg. hotel prices

Avg. hotel price per night in AED for standard double room across all hotel types. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Avg. car hire prices

Avg. prices for a car hire per day in AED and across all vehicle classes. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Fuel prices

Euro-super 95, avg. price (AED) for 1 litre from the period 11 - 17 Oct 2021.

Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com (Data from Oct 11- Oct 17 2021)

The Local prices category comprises four factors:

Apartment rental prices per month (avg. long-term stays)

Apartment (1 bedroom) in Outside of City Centre (AED), price per month.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 20 Sept 2021)

Apartment rental prices per day (avg. short-term stays)

Avg. apartment price per night in AED. Prices based on the search period Jan-Sept 2021 for travel period: Jan-Dec 2022.

Source: Kayak internal data

Local transportation prices

Avg. one-way ticket price for public transport (AED) derived from prices in available cities.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

Local food prices

Avg. recommended budget per month (AED).

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

Restaurant prices

Avg. price (AED) for a meal for 2 people (three courses) in a mid-range restaurant.

Source: Numbeo (Sourced 12 Oct 2021)

The Health & safety category comprises four factors:

Political stability

Political Stability and Absence of Violence / Terrorism (Percentile rank).

Source: WGI (Sourced 7 Oct 2021)

Air pollution exposure

Exposure to PM2.5, micrograms per cubic metre (2019 data).

Source: OECD

LGBT equality

Legal rights, scale 1-100 (worst-best).

Source: Equaldex (Sourced 7 Oct 2021)

Car accidents

Estimated road traffic death rate (per 100 000 population).

Source: WHO

The Remote work category comprises four factors:

Internet speed (Download)

Avg. download speed in mbps on a country level. Results based on tests from 11.04.2021 to 11.10.2021.

Source: Broadband Speed Checker

Internet speed (Upload)

Avg. upload speed in mbps on a country level. Results based on tests from 11.04.2021 to 11.10.2021.

Source: Broadband Speed Checker

Remote work visas

Information on the remote work visas is based on the information sourced from the official websites of the reviewed countries’ authorities. Source: Local & Governmental sites (Sourced: October, 2021)

Source: Local & Governmental sites

Co-working spaces

Estimated number of co-working spaces in a country (per capita).

Source: Coworker (Sourced 4 Oct 2021)

The Social life category comprises three factors:

English Proficiency Index score

The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) score is based on test data from more than 2,200,000 test takers around the world who took the EF Standard English Test (EF SET) or one of EF English placement tests in 2019. Read more about the EF EPI here. For countries where an EF EPI score is not available but where the English language is an official language, the highest EF EPI score of 652 was applied.

Source: EF EPI (Accessed on 29/09/2021)

Going out

Avg. number of bars and clubs in five major cities (per 100,000 inhabitants).

Sources: Open Street Map

Culture

Avg. number of theatres, museums and galleries in five major cities (per 100,000 inhabitants).

Sources: Open Street Map

Top International Flight Routes.

Cheap flights, hotels, hire cars and travel deals:

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Work from Wherever Index

America/New York time zone: These countries are best for work and travel

Work from Wherever Index

Rankings based on 22 factors

Work from Wherever Index - Methodology

Country selection

Data

Scoring system

Data sources & factor definitions

Travel

Accessibility

Avg. hotel prices

Avg. car hire prices

Fuel prices

Local prices

Apartment rental prices per month (avg. long-term stays)

Apartment rental prices per day (avg. short-term stays)

Local transportation prices

Local food prices

Restaurant prices

Health & safety

Political stability

Air pollution exposure

LGBT equality

Car accidents

Remote work

Internet speed (Download)

Internet speed (Upload)

Remote work visas

Co-working spaces

Social life

English Proficiency Index score

Going out

Culture

Weather

Precipitation

Temperature

Hotels