What is a Digital Nomad? | Chapter Excerpt from “Digital Nomad Nation”

 The following is an excerpt from my latest book Digital Nomad Nation: The Rise of a Borderless Generation

You can purchase this book in Kindle or Paperback on Amazon, or in downloadable PDF and eBook format here.

CHAPTER 2

What is a digital nomad?

To truly understand a revolution, you must understand the characters that drive the story.

In this story, the revolution starts with the “birth” of the individual digital nomad – the trailblazers who sensed the opportunity and left everything to travel the world, discovering a new way to live and the culture of digital nomadism along the way.

A hidden workspace in one of Southeast Asia’s “Nomad Capitals”

Digital Nomadism: A transformative tapestry woven on the move

Digital nomadism is a lifestyle carved from the road by a tribe of restless souls who trade suits for sandals and offices for oceans. It’s a philosophy whispered in the hum of a laptop fan: a belief that life bends to those who dare and that borders are just lines we can erase from our minds. From Rio’s rooftops to Albania’s shores, it’s a movement—messy but bold—writing its story one passport stamp at a time.

Picture this: a tiny café between the walking streets of Vietnam’s My An enclave, where the air hums with the murmur of half a dozen languages. A coder from Seattle swaps visa tips with a graphic designer from São Paulo. A Vietnamese barista slides an egg coffee across the counter with a subtle, knowing grin — he’s seen this type before. In Lisbon, a rooftop meetup spills into the night. Laughter mingles with the clink of wine glasses while trading stories of travel, burnout, and breakthrough. Voices rise over the social chatter on the cobblestone street below. In Medellín, a hostel meetup buzzes with a salsa class turned impromptu pitch session — someone’s latest app idea born between dance steps.

This isn’t just a lifestyle; it’s a living, breathing rhythm—a pulse that beats across borders, fueled by Wi-Fi and wanderlust.

Digital nomadism is a true culture. It’s a shared way of being. It’s the unspoken code that says 4 a.m. Zoom calls from a Bali guesthouse are as normal as a morning commute once was. It’s the ethos of freedom forged in the lessons of geoarbitrage, with the knowledge that a San Diego studio’s rent buys a beachside penthouse in Da Nang. It’s the rituals: the hunt for the perfect co-working nook in a new city, the seasonal pilgrimage to hubs like Bansko or Playa del Carmen, and the late-night Reddit posts debating the new visa loophole.

There’s a language—phrases like “location independence” or “slow travel” roll off the tongue like codewords admitting one into the cove of a subculture. And there’s a mythology, too—tales of the first wanderers who ditched cubicles for laptops in the late 00s, founding apps, conferences, and nomad hubs, whispered about like legends, paving the way for modern nomadism.

These experiences aren’t just outliers—they form the tapestry of approaches to living that make up the culture shared by millions of dreamers and doers around the globe, from the gaudy Instagram-filtered “laptop on the beach” crowd to the gritty pragmatists quietly and tirelessly building digital hustles.

Beneath the observable happenings, at its core, digital nomadism is a shared set of values, practices, and identities that define the group – like jazz in New Orleans and tea ceremonies in Kyoto.

Chiang Mai and Lisbon aren’t just places; they’re cultural capitals where nomads flock, shaping local scenes with cafés, conferences, and “co-experiences.”

Even the dark side of nomadism— with gentrification debates—mirrors cultural friction like hippies clashing with the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood’s old guard.

Digital nomadism is no longer a trend or a movement. It is a culture.

So, who are the individuals driving this new culture?

Defining the Phenomenon: What is a digital nomad?

Digital nomads are people who earn their income through remote work and use the resulting location independence to travel indefinitely and nomadically. Along the way, they move between destinations to optimize lifestyle and costs, maximize quality of life, and pursue varying unconventional experiences around the world.

Most digital nomads live outside their home territory, be that a country, state, or province, embracing travel with no end date as part of a nomadic way of life. To maintain both mobility and social completeness many digital nomads live a significant portion of their personal and social lives online as well.

What does the rainbow of the digital nomad community actually look like?

The Global Digital Nomad Study revealed a key insight into “who” digital nomads are: the average digital nomad more closely resembles the typical global citizen than portrayed in recent research and the media.

Much of the recent research inaccurately describes the average nomad as “young professionals or millennials, predominantly male, white, single and well-educated individuals” [1] . This inaccurate portrayal suggests that most nomads are male, have white-collar jobs, are in their late 20s or early 30s, and work remotely for a single company. It also implies that being well-educated is key to their success as digital nomads.

This common view of digital nomads is not only wrong, but it also does a disservice to the millions of nomads dismissed because they don’t fit this misrepresentation. It also potentially discourages aspiring nomads that more closely resemble the color and age spectrum of the nomad community than the incorrect but commonly accepted stereotype of digital nomads.

The actual average nomad depends less on their formal education and credentials for a successful, sustainable lifestyle and more on their adaptability, awareness of the digital economy, and willingness to learn new skills that are self-taught [2]. They are also much more practical in their careers and everyday lives than buzzy news coverage and social media have previously implied.

The average age among nomads is 40 years old, and they tend to be well-educated, usually holding a master’s degree or higher. However, this formal education is more an indicator of their self-driven and curious nature than a barrier to entering the DN lifestyle, according to the nomads themselves, as we will explore later. They are also just as likely to be a man or a woman, with nomads surveyed being 50% male and 50% female [2].

Digital nomads defy simple stereotypes, ranging from experienced entrepreneurs on the move creating businesses in co-working spaces to families balancing work, travel, and education to lightly committed freelancers prioritizing lifestyle and freedom over wealth. The manifestations of this lifestyle are as varied as the individuals who embrace it.

Nomads in their late 30s and older commonly reached managerial-level success and expertise in their previous careers before launching into the nomadic life. Many of those nomads reported that this experience aided the transition from traditional employees to remote workers or small business owners. Other younger age groups of nomads, most commonly 29 years old and 33 years old, reported leaving mid-career and attempting a full career change as a digital nomad in the process [2].

Regardless of age, most “successful digital nomads” reported maintaining a sustainable livelihood through self-employment combined with adaptiveness. 83% of digital nomads reported being self-employed either within the gig economy, as solopreneurs and small business owners, or as business scaling entrepreneurs [2]. For successful digital nomads with a sustainable business fully supporting their lifestyle, the successful business took three years to build, on average [3].

While most people do love the beach, the common image of a nomad with a laptop in the sand is an inaccurate romanticizing of the digital nomad lifestyle. Most successful nomads give ample weight to the professional side of the DN life and maintaining a productive balance. As such, most nomads prefer the productivity and comfort of working from a well-equipped “home” or accommodation slightly more than working in a co-working space, which was the second most preferred work location. However, most nomads still prioritize working or socializing with others at least once a week, not only as a pleasure preference but for good mental and emotional health during long-term and potentially isolating solo travel [2].

The digital nomad lifestyle is not about continually vacationing. It’s about building a sustainable life wherein the beachy adventures fit into the work and lifestyle choices, not the other way around. But the aggregate of flexible work, intentional living, and indefinite travel ultimately add up to something as fulfilling as a never-ending vacation.

However, understanding the strategies and internalizing the frameworks that make this lifestyle possible is far from instantaneous.

A popular nomad workspace hidden between the backstreets of Da Nang, Vietnam

The Path of Transformation

When people leap into digital nomadism, the nature of the lifestyle indoctrinates them into the modern nomadic lifestyle. There is no formal initiation, but the lived experiences that unite them are the slow introduction into the community. The path presents obstacles and opportunities so impactful that they inevitably shape all who embark on it.

Similar to the experiences of soldiers undergoing basic training, aspiring nomads, too, undergo a transformational rite of passage. Wandering while working online means balancing money, travel, and more. They must deal with visas, cultural barriers, and loneliness. Surviving the situation requires them to oberve, learn, then improvise on the fly. Through these experiences, nomads are forged into something new. They become more self-reliant, adaptable, and attuned to the rhythms and requirements of borderless living.

Within digital nomadism is a self-selecting process that attracts and keeps individuals willing to sacrifice certain elements of conventional life. They give up traditional work stability, deep-rooted relationships, and the possibility of accumulating possessions. In exchange, they gain the opportunity to pursue what nomads universally value: freedom, autonomy, location independence, minimalist living, and the ability to design life on their own terms. Those who find fulfillment in this tradeoff stay on the path, reinforcing the culture that makes the digital nomad community unique and opportunity filled.

Fully living out and prioritizing these values sparks individual growth and binds individual nomads to the wider digital nomad culture. With every border crossed and every new city explored, their identity as nomads deepens—not as an arbitrary label, but as a way of life.

As a result, digital nomadism filters more for desires, character, and personality than race, nationality, or age group. It is not about where you come from. It is about what you seek and what you are willing to do to achieve it.

Culture & Beliefs of Digital Nomadism: Empowering and driving forces on the transformational journey

As the patterns of behavior, preferences, and values of nomads surveyed show, digital nomadism is more than just a lifestyle. It is a culture among a like-minded group of people and a framework for creating freedom through borderless living.

The transformational process of cracking the code to the lifestyle shapes half of the culture. This traveler’s “school of hard knocks” inducts new nomads as they adopt the frameworks, habits, and routines ubiquitous within the community among seasoned nomads.

The values, beliefs, priorities, and desires nomads bring shape the other half of the culture, **repressed in a past life, but flourishing assets in a borderless life**. Values of freedom, autonomy, location independence, and minimalism are backed by beliefs in open borders and a healthy appreciation for the foreign. The longer they wander as nomads, the more they prioritize these values. Ultimately, these values don’t only apply on an individual level but form the foundation of the culture of digital nomadism as these values permeate and underpin the community.

With the significance digital nomads increasingly have within the global community and the surface-level similarities with other travelers, remote workers, and migrants, it is worthwhile to examine what makes digital nomads different from other adventurous souls making their lives abroad.

Expats vs. Digital Nomads: Expatriates build deep ties to a single country

While digital nomads use location independence to explore the world, expatriates also enjoy life abroad permanently but tend to settle in a single country. This commitment to a specific country is usually due to family or professional circumstances. The tie could be driven by employment with a multinational company or a local company. The tie could be related to marriage to a local spouse. The tie could be ownership of a local business owned offline. In all cases, the expat’s situation and ties are permanent to that specific, single country.

This permanent settling comes with many logistical, lifestyle, and long-term planning differences from nomads. Taxes, the need for long-term residency permits, and laws about work permits as a foreigner all become daily concerns for the expat but are unimportant for the nomad fluidly on the move. The deeper connection to the country, financially, legally, and practically, leads expats to dive deeper into the language, culture, and society of that single country than nomads do or are even able to.

By contrast, the average digital nomad spends only three to nine months in a single location [2]. Nomads tend to stay on tourist visas and travel frequently within the country or to nearby countries during that same period. Because of this nature, nomads tend to have more superficial experiences within cities across many different countries, while expats connect with a single country and culture deeply. Frequent travel and no residence permit often mean nomads don’t owe taxes in the countries they visit. However, their tax situation ultimately depends on how long they stay each year, their legal and immigration ties, and their overall impact on the country.

Workcationers vs. Digital Nomads: Temporary travelers who maintain deep roots at home

While digital nomads often travel with no end date, “workcationers” are people who travel temporarily and work remotely during those travels. These individuals tend to maintain their apartment and regular employment in their home country during those travels. Personal belongings at home generally remain untouched as they intend to return within a short period. Curated workcation programs such as Remote Year, Outsite, and Wi-Fi Tribe are prime examples of the growing workcation travel trend. This situation differs from digital nomadism primarily in 1) the length of their travels and 2) the extent of their “roots” maintained in their home city.

By contrast, most digital nomads reduce their footprint of possessions and obligations in their former home territory before leaving on their travels. They break apartment leases or sublet apartments long-term before leaving to simplify logistics and save money by not paying for a space they won’t occupy. Nomads place personal items in storage or at a family home to avoid the need to return home to move or discard personal items at the end of an apartment lease or change in personal situation at home. The uncertain length of the nomad’s travels makes this minimalist approach practical, cost-effective, and simpler to manage.

These workcations may be solo travel experiences, mirroring the average nomad’s lifestyle for the stint, but they are a mere taste as the short experiences eliminate the major logistical issues nomads face with “life in a backpack.” Additionally, the shorter travel of workcations is not long enough for the character-shaping “trial by fire” of long-term nomadism to reach full blaze.

Recently, companies mentioned earlier have been curating arranged groups of workcationers for a single trip. The experiences go beyond simple remote work, aiming for maximum experience in minimal time by combining group travel, planned accommodation, guided tours, and full itineraries.

Ultimately, workcationers must return home, as they likely have a job that they must report to while away and return to. While some 17% of digital nomads work remotely as permanent employees for a company, digital nomads do so while traveling without a specified vacation or travel period that many workcationers and traditional employees are confined to.

“Workcationing” is a viable approach for aspiring nomads to “dip a toe” into the digital nomad lifestyle. However, truly embracing the digital nomad lifestyle requires more sacrifice to start. Giving up a home and personal belongings is a first and essential step for money saving and efficiency, improving logistics of a one-way trip into nomadism.

Are nomads that travel within their own country still digital nomads?

A small point of contention within the digital nomad community is whether those who work remotely and “go nomad” within their home country still qualify as digital nomads.

According to analysis from the 2022 Global Digital Nomad Study, these “intranational nomads” or “domestic nomads” are absolutely still digital nomads based on their lifestyle, culture, and contribution to the global digital nomad community.

First, the migration within a single territory that “domestic digital nomads” embark on is similar to nomadic ancestors’ movements within a single territory. These local migrations were common with pastoral nomads such as the Massai, Mongols, and Bedouins.

Secondarily, in many countries, domestic travel delivers an experience as rich as wandering the world, making the only true difference between international and intranational nomadism the experience of crossing national borders. Countries such as India and China, with vast cultural and language diversity, offer experiences that arguably exceed international travel in comparably sized regions.

Third, these domestic nomads have displayed the potential to serve unique and necessary roles within the digital nomad community. As “locals” who live the life of digital nomadism, they often act as knowledgeable advocates between worlds. As impromptu volunteers in the nomad community’s “Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” they can connect the global digital nomad community with their home nation’s government and local populace. There is a chance for “local digital nomads” to inform and connect immigration departments, tourism boards, and the local private sector with the nomad community in an efficient way for ethical, mutually beneficial ends.

In the recent past, domestic digital nomads have collaborated on behalf of the nomad community with local partners to drive digital nomad visa projects, special development zones, the creation of digital nomad enclaves, and garnering government support for nomad community gatherings and events. Continuing such endeavors will lead to a richer nomad community and a richer connection to host communities.

Additionally, domestic digital nomads can advise the commercial sector on how best to serve and integrate digital nomads. As cultural bridges, local nomads can communicate the nomad community’s unique needs to companies for optimal business-customer relationships with nomads. In this capacity, they can also serve as “cultural translation buffers,” communicating essential warnings to the digital nomad community. This communication can potentially prevent the negative effects of gentrification, displacement, and cultural rinsing, which are clear risks when the nomad community settles in a region.

Ultimately, intranational digital nomads are a key, high-potential part of the nomad community, with domestic digital nomadism being the more efficient and accessible sister approach to international digital nomadism. Along the way, they perform useful, unique functions connecting the nomad community with the hosting communities and nations in a sustainable way.

Examples of unconventional digital nomads

An example of an intranational digital nomad could be a US citizen from North Carolina wandering his own country. He may use his location independence to explore the wine, mountains, and beachscapes of California, 2,500 miles away, while working online. All achievable without a passport.

Similarly, a Dutch citizen may use her location independence to live in, work in, and explore Spain 1000 miles away. Experiencing this vastly different climate, culture, and pace of life are all possible without a passport, thanks to traveling within the EU.

By contrast, an Indian digital nomad may spend months or years nomading in their home country. With a population of over 1 billion people (18% of the world’s population) and 121 languages, they have the possibility to experience more differing cultures, languages, and geographies than many nomads traveling internationally.

As these varied cases show, the opportunities for cultural exposure and travel for individual nomads can vary widely – regardless of passport situation, comfort navigating foreign languages, or comfort navigating foreign cultures – as there is a digital nomadism option suited to all tastes, personal situations, and passports.

The overlapping factor within these cases, considering the “location” aspect of defining a digital nomad, is each digital nomad uses their location independence to cross major borders made distinct by significantly different cultures, laws, or experiences than at “home.” In doing so, the nomads use their location independence to experience new cultures, new experiences, and new locations.

So, what does this chapter’s profile of digital nomads reveal?

Firstly, digital nomads are wonderfully varied in nationality, ethnicity, age, experience, and personal situation. This shows that anyone of any age and any background can take up the journey and enrich themselves and the digital nomad community in the process.

Secondly, becoming a nomad isn’t a decision that anyone has to make fully equipped, fully planned, and with all of the answers. The experience of digital nomadism is a journey of progressively crafting a life and adopting a new framework and culture that supports successful digital nomadism. With desire and resilience, anyone is capable of embarking on the digital nomad’s journey.

Lastly, there is an opportunity to take inspiration. Imagine how your life could be transformed and more tuned to who you are, who you want to be, and what you want from life if you “went nomad?”

The Bottom Line of What the Digital Nomad Is: A unique, new part of our modern world

The digital nomad is a unique, new demographic that is a product of modern times, modern opportunity, and the ever-continuing technological innovations that surround us.

These modern wanderers share much in common internally, with the common origin stories, values, and desires that serve as intangible assets for the tasks and trials ahead; digital nomads are similar in what matters most.

Their similar histories – of reaching a breaking point of instability and unfulfillment – and values – such as freedom, autonomy, and minimalism over materialism – are what led them to accept the invitations of the journey of traveling the world and becoming successful, self-sufficient digital nomads. Along the way, the unique trials and struggles of digital nomadism set them apart from the standard traveler or expat, driving them to internalize a new framework for living and unknowingly internalize their new culture. Digital nomadism.

That rite of passage ultimately empowers them to design the life they originally envisioned and so much more as they learn and grow through the lifecycle of the digital nomad.

 The excerpt was from my latest book Digital Nomad Nation: The Rise of a Borderless Generation

You can purchase this book in Kindle or Paperback on Amazon, or in downloadable PDF and eBook format here.