Digital nomads are having a moment, a growing number of the workforce which is impacting how employers operate. The ballooning industry has only grown exponentially due to many countries offering digital nomad visas, enticing remote workers to work and live in their countries.
While the term digital nomad seems to be more of a buzz word these days without a true definition, anthropologist Dave Cook recently published that there are five types of digital nomads. Cook’s findings were recently published by World Leisure Journal expand on the fact that remote work has become more mainstream.
Cook’s first type of digital nomads are labeled as freelance digital nomads, otherwise known as the pre-2020 digital nomad. These are workers, consisting of bloggers, photographers, digital marketers and others, who can work from anywhere and are the most common digital nomad.
The second classification are digital nomad business owners, those who employ contract employees and/or have a more complex business structure. This is a smaller group but a growing number as entrepreneurs are becoming savvier and diversifying.
Third are salaried digital nomads who are full-time remote workers who lived in at least three different places each year. This is the fastest-growing category of digital nomads as these workers are taking advantage of both tax and travel benefits from being able to work in multiple places.
Experimental digital nomads are the fourth category. They are those who are dipping their toes in the digital nomad lifestyle but haven’t fully committed or realized how to earn enough money to become a full-time digital nomad.
Lastly are armchair nomads, those who have visions of being freelance digital nomads, but haven’t left home. These are dreamers who want to be digital nomads, but those dreams have not manifested into reality.
According to multiple sources, there are over 50 countries around the world offering digital nomad visas and this number will surely only climb.