2022’s Best Cities for Remote Workers

If you could work from anywhere — up to 70% of job candidates today prefer a hybrid or remote work setup — where would you choose to live?

To help telecommuters narrow their shortlist, LawnStarter ranked 2022’s Best Cities for Remote Workers. 

We compared nearly 200 of the biggest U.S. cities based on remote job opportunities, internet connectivity, cost of living, and availability of personal workspace, among 20 total factors.

Check out the 10 cities that set telecommuters up for success (and the 10 that lack the internet backbone to support those Zoom calls) below. You’ll also find highlights and lowlights from our report.

Highlights and Lowlights:

• Don’t Mess with Texas: The Lone Star State dominates our ranking of the Best Cities for Remote Workers, hardly a surprise, considering it’s the third fastest-growing state in America.

  Texas claims half of our top 10 cities and seven of our top 20, including Frisco at No. 1 and every major Texas city.

  Texas cities — three of them in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — earned many of the highest scores in the Opportunity and Connectivity categories. The lack of a state income tax also means more take-home money.

• Go Big and Go Work from Home: Our ranking shows that large cities tend to be safe bets for remote workers, despite the trend that claustrophobic remote workers are flocking to the suburbs for more space.

  Eight of our top 10 cities have at least 250,000 residents, while the other two are mid-size cities with populations between 100,000 and 250,000.

  Suburbs might offer more breathing room and mainstream amenities, but bigger cities boast more job opportunities and options in general.
   

• Not All That Glitters Is Gold: If you’re a California-dreaming remote worker, wake up. The Golden State monopolizes the bottom of our ranking. Nine out of the worst 10 are in California, including Salinas in last place. Los Angeles is tops among California cities at No. 90 (tied with Chesapeake, Virginia).

  High on costs and low on good workplace factors like available personal space, California may be better for visiting than telecommuting.

Our full ranking and analysis can be found here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-worst-us-cities-for-remote-workers/