Wellington makes top 10 list of best cities for digital nomads

Wellington ranked ninth with an overall average score of 5.41. Photo / File

Wellington has ranked in the top ten cities around the world for digital nomads – remote workers who usually travel between different locations – to work in, according to a new study.

The analysis, conducted by online home rental company Spotahome, standardised data available for categories such as internet speed, the number of co-working spaces, apartment rental prices and migrant acceptance to determine which urban cities are best-suited for digital nomads.

Wellington, which ranked ninth with an overall average score of 5.41, was only one of two cities (including Auckland) to receive a perfect score of 10.00 for migrant acceptance.

The city was also placed highly for number of co-working spaces (sixth) and green spaces and parks (fifth).

Auckland placed 11th on the list, with an average score of 5.33.

New Zealand's largest city ranked 33 places ahead of Wellington for internet speed - eighth and 41st respectively.

Neither city placed highly for average cost of a 1-bedroom apartment, coming in at the 29th and 31st most expensive cities included in the study.

European cities dominated the top ten, with Belfast, which was recently named Lonely Planet's best place to visit in 2018, taking the top spot ahead of Lisbon, Barcelona, Brisbane and Luxembourg.

Though it had one of the worst scores for annual sunshine hours (0.38), top-scoring Belfast excelled in several key areas, ranking highly for internet speed (10.00), the number of co-working spaces (8.12) and apartment rental prices (8.28).

Fifty-six cities around the world were compared as part of the study.

The full results can be found here.

The top ten:

Belfast (United Kingdom) – average score 6.05
Lisbon (Portugal) – 5.84
Barcelona (Spain) – 5.82
Brisbane (Australia) – 5.54
Luxembourg (Luxembourg) – 5.48
Adelaide (Australia) – 5.46
Madrid (Spain) – 5.43
San Francisco (United States) – 5.43
Wellington (New Zealand) – 5.41
Miami (United States) – 5.35

Bottom five:

Hong Kong (Hong Kong) – 3.31
Singapore (Singapore) – 3.62
New York (United States) – 3.91
Tokyo (Japan) – 3.98
Dubai (UAE) – 4.01