With over one in five American workers expected to work remotely by 2025, it's clear that working from home isn't going anywhere — and that living in the ideal WFH environment is likely to become more important to both remote and hybrid workers in the future.
But some states are better than others when it comes to offering the ideal remote work environment, according to a new WalletHub report that identified the best and worst states for working from home.
To create this list, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two main dimensions, work environment and living environment.
Within those dimensions, the states were further evaluated by 12 metrics, including internet access and cost, cybersecurity, as well as share of detached housing units and average home square footage to determine how crowded homes are in each state. Each state's weighted average across all metrics was then calculated to produce an overall score used for ranking.
New Jersey was named the best state for working from home thanks to its cheap internet costs and high access to broadband internet. Utah ranked second in part because it has the largest homes in the country, preventing remote workers from feeling confined.
Here are the 10 best states for working from home, according to WalletHub:
1. New Jersey
Total score: 64.76
Work environment ranking: 2
Living environment ranking: 13
2. Utah
Total score: 64.47
Work environment ranking: 10
Living environment ranking: 1
3. Delaware
Total score: 64.25
Work environment ranking: 5
Living environment ranking: 4
4. Maryland
Total score: 63.59
Work environment ranking: 3
Living environment ranking: 10
5. District of Columbia
Total score: 62.87
Work environment ranking: 1
Living environment ranking: 51
6. Connecticut
Total score: 61.66
Work environment ranking: 7
Living environment ranking: 8
7. Washington
Total score: 61.16
Work environment ranking: 9
Living environment ranking: 5
8. Pennsylvania
Total score: 60.38
Work environment ranking: 6
Living environment ranking: 20
9. Massachusetts
Total score: 58.67
Work environment ranking: 4
Living environment ranking: 41
10. North Carolina
Total score: 57.62
Work environment ranking: 14
Living environment ranking: 17
Delaware, which grabbed the top spot in 2023, slid to number three this year, though it still has low internet costs and high broadband internet access, as well as the fifth-highest average home square footages in the U.S.
WalletHub's report also identified the 10 worst states for working remotely: Alaska, Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, West Virginia, Maine and North Dakota.
Many of these states were more likely to have low internet access, high internet cost and lower shares of their populations working from home.
Looking to capitalize on the interest among Americans to work from home, cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma have even offered to pay remote workers $10,000 to move there. Similar programs have popped up in Alaska and West Virginia.
For people thinking of making a big move, WalletHub's list can serve as a tool to help determine whether a state meets your priorities when it comes to remote work, says Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst.
"It's a really good resource to get a general overview and see if a state really aligns with what is important to you, be it the work environment and having stable internet connection, versus the living environment and having a nice big house where you can comfortably separate your work from your personal life," she says.
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