I recently read an article in the Independent about digital nomads in Bali and was surprised to learn that there were so many semi-permanently based there – at least 6,000 in Canggu alone, and according to the Nomad List website, more than a thousand in Ubud as well.
As I consider myself to be something of a digital nomad these days (but way older than the Millennials and Gen Xers that comprise most of the digital nomad population) I decided to do some research on which countries in Asia are the best destinations for digital nomads.
Although Boomers comprise only a small proportion of digital nomads in Asia, there are still quite a few semi-retired people like me who are travelling and writing, possibly teaching English or providing remote consultancy services as they move from country to country.
Canggu, Bali, is the top destination in Asia for digital nomads. Image: Anton Mislawsky
My research turned up a recently published resource called ‘The Digital Nomad Index Ranked’ prepared by CircleLoop, a UK cloud-based business phone system provider. It ranked countries according to a number of factors such as broadband speeds, mobile speeds, broadband costs, monthly rent, and a few other factors such as the availability of working visas, but didn’t indicate how each factor was weighted to come up with each country’s overall rank.
Surprisingly, Indonesia – which has more destinations for digital nomads listed in the Nomad List than any other country in Asia – only comes in at No. 60 on the CircleLoop ranking. Instead, CircleLoop ranks Singapore as the top country for digital nomads in Asia, with Thailand second and Japan (which hardly rates a mention on the Nomad List) third.
That suggests that CircleLoop was focusing primarily on communications issues such as the broadband speeds and costs, and not other factors that tend to attract digital nomads to particular locations such as climate, environment, food and drink costs, and whether it has a ‘holiday atmosphere’ – which after all is why digital nomads travel, because working out of Singapore for many may not be much different than working from a city in their home country.
The Nomad List ranks places for digital nomads to work using a much more extensive and comprehensive list of factors, but it does so by destination rather than country. On the Nomad List rankings, Canggu, Bangkok and Taipei all come in ahead of Singapore.
Bangkok is the second most popular destination for digital nomads in Asia. Image: Roland Marte
In fact, Canggu is ranked as the second most popular destination in the world for digital nomads after Lisbon, Portugal. Other Asian destinations to make it into the world top 25 destinations for digital nomads are Penang in Malaysia, Tbilisi in Georgia, and Ko Pha Ngan in Thailand.
The next 25 destinations on the world listing include six places in Asia, namely Seoul in South Korea, Seminyak in Bali, Bengaluru in India, Manila and Davao in the Philippines and Phuket in Thailand.
After that there are just seven Asian destinations included in the world rankings from 51 to 100, namely Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Senggigi in Lombok, Krabi and Chiang Mai in Thailand, Da Nang in Vietnam, and Munggu in Bali, but the number of digital nomads based in those locations is quite small.
That’s a total of 20 destinations in Asia out of the 100 ranked on the world list. Not a bad number given that many of the top destinations are well-known European cities and exotic locations in Central America and the Caribbean. Among those 20 there’s three I’ve not been to yet – Tbilisi, Ko Pha Ngan and Senggigi.
So now I have three new destinations to add to my wish list for when we are able to start travelling again!
Header image: Adrien Be
