Remote workers are a unique breed because their choice of where to live is completely separate from their choice of job, making the world their oyster. FlexJobs recently released a ranking of the top states remote workers choose to settle in – which gives us some idea of how remote work-friendly different states are.
The ranking (and map below) pulls the percentage of full-time remote workers from the 2013 US Census’s American Community Survey. Beautiful, health-conscious Colorado tops the list with almost 7% remote workers, while Mississippi rounds it out with less than 2%. Hawaii, which you might assume is every remote worker’s dream destination, has a respectable 4.4%.
The ranking is relevant if you’re looking for a remote job and want to know how open local employers might be to the idea, or if you’re setting up a company and want to know if your potential hires prefer to work from home. (If the latter is true, also check out FlexJobs’s top 10 states where people want to work from home).
Here are the top 10 states with the most remote workers:
1. Colorado: 6.9%
2. Vermont: 6.8%
3. Oregon: 6.3%
4. Montana: 6%
5. Maine: 5.7%
6. Arizona: 5.5%
7. Idaho: 5.5%
8. New Hampshire: 5.4%
9. Washington: 5.3%
10. California: 5.2%
Some popular states that didn’t make the top 10 include DC (4.4%), Massachusetts (4.4%), New York (4%), and Illinois (4.2%). The states with the least remote workers, besides Mississippi, are Arkansas (2.8%), Alabama (2.5%), and Louisiana (2.4%).
Another thing about remote workers is that they’re mobile, so it’s easier for them to up and move somewhere else. So this ranking may reflect which locations are trendy today, and may change tomorrow.
Image credit: Flickr / Larry Lamsa / CC BY-SA 2.0