
The pandemic and its aftermath sparked a significant shift toward remote work, transforming how and where people do their jobs.
This article was written by Kayla Zhu and originally published by Visual Capitalist.
Over one-third (35%) of U.S. workers with jobs that can be done remotely are now working from home all of the time, according to Pew Research.
To understand this trend at a regional level, we visualize the number of remote workers and share of remote workers in the workforce in the top 30 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas with the most remote workers in 2023.
The figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Which U.S. City Has The Most Remote Workers?
Below, we show the top 30 U.S. metropolitan areas by number of remote workers and their share of remote workers.
| Metropolitan area | Number of Remote Workers | % of Workers That Work Remotely |
|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metro Area | 1,300,973 | 12.5% |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area | 952,276 | 13.8% |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area | 745,855 | 20.7% |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area | 729,953 | 14.4% |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area | 687,812 | 15.6% |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area | 609,408 | 17.8% |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area | 528,630 | 15.8% |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ Metro Area | 481,980 | 18.4% |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area | 481,798 | 19.0% |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area | 470,828 | 16.6% |
The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan area emerges as a prominent remote working hub in the United States.
The city has 23.6% of its workforce (339,824 people) working remotely, second only to Boulder, Colorado, where 26.2% (49,171 people) work remotely.
Austin’s high share of remote workers is driven by its growing tech industry, favorable business climate, and generally high quality of life with a vibrant city culture.
The Raleigh-Cary metro area in North Carolina trails closely behind Austin, with 23.3% of its workforce working remotely. Raleigh is part of the Research Triangle, a region of North Carolina known for its proximity to three major research universities: Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University.
The area is known for these research institutions and a high concentration of tech and biotech companies.
Major metro areas New York-Newark-Jersey City and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim recorded the most total remote workers, at 1.3 million and 952,000 respectively.
However, remote work makes up just 12.5% of New York’s workforce and 13.8% of Los Angeles.
