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.
If coworking is your thing, Nottingham is your place. With 12.52 coworking spaces per 100K residents, it offers more shared workspace options than anywhere else in the top 10. Download speeds are solid too (190.1 Mbps), and nearly a third of the city’s population (28%) has recently worked from home.
On the downside, upload speeds (19.6 Mbps) are sluggish, and safety isn’t the strongest suit. The city ranks mid-table for most other metrics, but its high coworking availability gives it the flexibility that many remote workers crave, and could be why it edges into the top 10.
Southampton (1st) leads on broadband speeds, while Lancaster (2nd) excels in uploads and affordability. Exeter (3rd) does well with job availability and coworking access. Stoke-on-Trent, in 4th, performs well in homeworking and upload speed, and Preston (5th) tops the list for recently remote workers.
St Albans (6th) delivers on job access and safety. Lincoln (7th) offers a safe, affordable option for remote workers. Norwich (9th) stands out for green space and personal safety, while Oxford (10th) is a solid all-rounder with plenty of coworking space and access to nature.
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:
| Rank | Area | Average download internet speed (Mbps) | Average upload internet speed (Mbps) | Coworking spaces per 100K | Remote-friendly job postings per 100K | Recently worked from home (%) | Average data usage (GB) | Cost of living | Safety index | Park and play areas per 100K | Total Score |
| 1 | Southampton | 279.3 | 174.9 | 8.90 | 4,240 | 30 | 540 | 1,142 | 46.71 | 55.84 | 64.97 |
| 2 | Lancaster | 190.6 | 99.9 | 1.41 | 7,206 | 27 | 516 | 703 | 54.5 | 102.36 | 53.84 |
| 3 | Exeter | 190.2 | 21.9 | 9.28 | 7,914 | 24 | 534 | 1,214 | 66.5 | 75.88 | 50.63 |
| 4 | Stoke on Trent | 195.7 | 69.6 | 2.71 | 4,010 | 37 | 529 | 604 | 52.85 | 58.14 | 50.20 |
| 5 | Preston | 149.7 | 21.3 | 9.49 | 6,973 | 46 | 570 | 674 | 28.25 | 69.05 | 49.42 |
| 6 | St Albans | 204.4 | 23.5 | 6.73 | 10,286 | 8 | 542 | 1,729 | 76.48 | 106.21 | 48.90 |
| 7 | Lincoln | 169.8 | 18 | 4.89 | 9,935 | 16 | 570 | 825 | 73.89 | 48.40 | 48.64 |
| 8 | Nottingham | 190.1 | 19.6 | 12.52 | 3,302 | 28 | 619 | 915 | 49.29 | 52.54 | 48.06 |
| 9 | Norwich | 162.7 | 18.7 | 4.89 | 7,146 | 29 | 519 | 1,030 | 73.94 | 79.68 | 47.90 |
| 10 | Oxford | 159.4 | 19 | 12.50 | 6,599 | 34 | 454 | 1,663 | 64.38 | 81.73 | 47.75 |