Southampton named best UK city for remote workers, according to new study

To get to the bottom of which cities truly work for remote workers, researchers at RemotePeople, an international remote recruitment agency, crunched the numbers for 60 UK cities. The team examined nine critical factors, including internet speeds (both upload and download), coworking space availability, remote job listings, cost of living, safety, and access to parks and play areas. They even looked at average data usage and how many residents are already working from home.

Each city was scored out of 100 for each factor, weighted according to importance (with internet speeds taking top priority), to form an overall ‘remote work friendliness’ score. The data was sourced from OFCOM, ONS, LinkedIn, Coworker, and Numbeo.

Southampton topped the list of best UK cities for remote workers, with a score of 64.67. This south coast city boasts the fastest internet in the study, with download speeds soaring to 279.3 Mbps and upload speeds at a whopping 174.9 Mbps. Combine that with a solid 30% of residents already working remotely and you’ve got a city that’s clearly wired for the future.

Coworking spaces are decent (8.9 per 100K people), and the cost of living – while not the lowest – is far from eye-watering. At £1,142, it ranks 21st in affordability. It doesn’t shine as brightly in categories like safety (ranked 47th) or green space (37th), but Southampton’s strength lies in its consistency.

Lancaster ranks 2nd overall and stands out with the second-best upload speed in the study (99.9 Mbps) and 7,206 remote-friendly job listings per 100,000 people. Exeter follows in 3rd place, offering a solid mix of remote job opportunities (7,914 listings) and flexible workspaces (9.28 coworking spaces per 100K). Stoke-on-Trent ranks 4th and leads the way in homeworking culture, with 37% of residents recently working from home, the highest in the study.

In 5th place, Preston records the highest remote working rate at 46% and ranks 11th for coworking spaces. St Albans, in 6th place, claims the top spot for job listings (10,286 per 100K) and is also one of the safest cities in the top 10. Lincoln comes 7th with strong job availability (9,935 listings) and a top-10 safety rating. Nottingham, ranked 8th, offers the most coworking options in the list (12.52 per 100K), while Norwich, in 9th, excels in safety and green space. Finally, Oxford rounds out the top 10 with strong coworking access and good park availability, despite its higher cost of living.

While these 10 cities lead the pack, not all came out looking rosy. London surprisingly ranked bottom overall – perhaps a reminder that sky-high rents and packed Tube stations don’t pair well with remote working dreams. Bradford, Chichester, Brighton and Hove, and Sheffield also found themselves at the lower end.

Elsewhere, some major players fell just short of the top 10. Manchester landed in 13th place, Bristol 16th, Leeds 17th, Liverpool 22nd, Cambridge 24th, Edinburgh 25th – and Birmingham lagged behind in 43rd.

It seems the best city for working from home isn’t always the one with the biggest skyline. Sometimes, it’s about balance – and a good internet connection, of course.

The top 10 list of the best UK cities for remote workers in the study: