Here Are the Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Millennials to Work Remotely

Lauren Hannula Managing Editor

Updated 23 July 2020

Best and Worst Cities for Millennial Remote Workers

Millennials now make up the majority of the U.S. workforce, so WhistleOut decided to take a look at the best and worst cities for millennials to live in or visit when working remotely.

Top 10 Best & Worst Cities for Millennials to Work Remotely

Top 10 Best Cities

Scottsdale, Arizona emerged as the best U.S. city for millennial remote workers by a large margin, with a score of 81.3 out of 100. For comparison, runner-up Kansas City scored a 55.2.

What makes Scottsdale a millennial worker’s paradise? The city offers an affordable housing market coupled with median annual earnings of just over $51,000. Plus, internet plans in Scottsdale showed average download speeds of 117Mbps—plenty fast for everything from video conferencing to virtual happy hours.

Top 10 Worst Cities

For millennials, California’s warm weather and swaying palm trees make it a paradise—but not necessarily for working remotely. Five Golden State cities appear in our bottom 10 findings, with Santa Ana ranked as the worst for millennial remote workers, scoring just a 17.5 out of 100.

Why the poor results? Among the 100 cities we reviewed, Santa Ana reports one of the higher average rent costs for a single-bedroom apartment at $1,400, but with median earnings of just over $27,000—that’s a touch over half of Scottsdale’s median earned income. That said, should you find yourself on a business trip in the city, you’ll enjoy speedy internet (averaging 94Mbps) and plenty of coffee shops (400+) to work from.

Higher Cost of Living = Lower Ranking

A major trend was the relationship between a location's cost of living and its suitability for remote working. The more expensive the city, the lower it fell on the list. For example, despite their reputations as powerhouse locations for business and commerce, both New York and San Jose ended up in the bottom 10 cities for millennials working from home, largely because they cost so much to live in.

By contrast, more affordable cities are well-poised to support millennial workers. Cheaper housing allows earned income to go much further, especially when coupled with reduced commuting costs.

Methodology & Sources

We looked at the 100 most populated cities in the U.S., and we ranked and weighted them by the following factors:

The percentage of the population currently working from home (40%)
Residents' median monthly earnings as a percentage of the average one-bedroom apartment rent cost (30%)
The average download speeds across home internet plans (20%)
The number of coffee shops per 100,000 residents (10%)

We used U.S. census data as well as public business listings and internet speed test results reported for each city. We then normalized our findings on a 0-1 scale, and combined the adjusted measurements with the weighted percentages above for our final results.

Lauren Hannula

Managing Editor

Lauren is WhistleOut's Managing Editor. With over 14 years of digital writing and publishing experience, she's developed a passion for breaking down overly complex topics to offer easy, affordable solutions that help make the most of the tech you already have in your pocket. Her work has appeared in industry stalwarts such as CNET, Yahoo! News, and Forbes.

Read full bio