Everyone thinks the nomadic life only works with an online job. But we existed long before the laptop — and working online is just as hard as anything else you take seriously.
A laptop, a beach, a coffee in hand — that’s the image most people have in their heads when they hear “digital nomad.” Add to that the firm conviction: only those who earn money online can roam the world freely and independently. Anything else is either impossible or just a vacation with an excuse.
I’ve been working on the road for about ten years, with a dog, across half of Africa and a good part of Europe. And I can tell you firsthand: neither of those things is quite true. Nomads existed long before the laptop. And working online is exactly as easy or as hard as anything else you set out to do — it just always looks easier when someone else is doing it.
Nomads existed long before Wi-Fi
The idea that a location-independent life is an invention of the 2010s persists stubbornly — but it isn’t true. People have always moved around for the most varied reasons, without ever needing an internet connection to do so. Sailors who spent months at sea and shuttled between ports. Traveling merchants who carried their goods from town to town. Seasonal workers who followed the harvest across the country. Backpackers who traveled the “Hippie Trail” from Europe to India in the 1960s and 70s, with nothing but a backpack and a vague route in mind. Even the so-called hobos of 1930s America — migrant workers who rode freight trains from job to job — were already living, in a sense, what is sold today as radically new: a life without a fixed residence, organized around work you find along the way instead of staying put in one place.
What has changed is not the basic principle, only the tool. In the past you needed a port, a marketplace, or a harvest farm to earn money on the road. Today a laptop and a stable connection are often enough. The tool has become lighter — the life itself hasn’t necessarily.
Where the term “digital nomad” actually comes from
What surprises many people: the term “digital nomad” is itself old enough to slowly feel like an institution. It was coined in 1997 by the Japanese technology visionary Tsugio Makimoto and his co-author David Manners in their book of the same name. Their thesis: mobile technology would lead humanity back to a kind of nomadic existence, after millennia of settled life.
Technically, the two were far ahead of their time — in 1997 the internet was still in its infancy, Wi-Fi practically didn’t exist, let alone smartphones. It took nearly two more decades before the technology had actually advanced enough for a broader movement to form: only with platforms like the community “Nomad List,” founded in 2014, did digital nomadism become what it is today — a visible, networked, global way of life with its own hotspots, its own culture, and its own myths.
Myth versus reality
And that’s where these myths get interesting. Because the image circulating online has little in common with the everyday life of most location-independent workers.
Why everything always looks easier for others
One reason this myth persists so stubbornly is simple: nobody posts a photo of themselves catching up on an invoice at midnight because the client is in a different time zone. What gets posted is the sunset, not the three hours of research before it. The internet almost exclusively shows the result, never the path to it — and that’s exactly what makes other people’s lives always look easier than your own. This applies to social media in general, but with digital nomadism there’s a second effect on top: the change of location itself seems like the solution. Yet working on the road is at its core exactly what work is everywhere — just with a changing backdrop.
For ten years I’ve been sitting with the same tasks I would have had staying put: coordinating client calls, meeting deadlines, learning new tools, writing invoices. What has changed is not the difficulty of the work — but the view out the window while doing it.
Current figures: how big is the movement really?
Estimates suggest there are between 40 and 80 million digital nomads worldwide in 2025 — a wide range that’s mainly due to the fact that the term can’t be cleanly defined: does it only count those who live entirely without a fixed residence? Or also those who only work from abroad temporarily? In the US alone, around 18.1 million people described themselves as digital nomads in 2024 — an increase of over 140 percent since 2019. The average age is around 37, roughly two-thirds work full-time on the road, the rest only part-time.
What’s most interesting here: studies on this growing group regularly show that loneliness and concern about financial stability are among the most frequently cited challenges — not exactly what the glossy image of the free life promises.
What really matters in the end
The most honest answer to the question “Is the nomadic life easy?” is: it’s exactly as easy or as hard as any other life you build for yourself. The online job doesn’t automatically make it easier, and staying put doesn’t automatically make it safer. What matters is not whether the work happens online or on-site — but discipline, a reliable income, and the willingness to deal with paperwork, setbacks, and bad Wi-Fi just as much as with the beautiful part.
Freedom in this life doesn’t mean the absence of work or responsibility. It means getting to decide for yourself what backdrop you do both against.
The most important questions about digital nomads at a glance
What is a digital nomad?
A digital nomad is someone who works location-independently — usually online — and regularly changes their place of residence instead of living in one fixed location.
Since when have digital nomads existed?
The term was coined in 1997 by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners. But digital nomadism only became a broad movement from around 2014, when technology and online communities like Nomad List created the necessary infrastructure.
Is the nomadic life easier than a normal job?
No. Working online brings the same challenges as any other work — discipline, client acquisition, irregular income — just with a changing location instead of a fixed office.
How many digital nomads are there worldwide?
Estimates for 2025 range from 40 to 80 million people worldwide, depending on how narrowly or broadly you define the term.
Do you have to work online to lead a nomadic life?
No. People lived and worked on the road long before the internet — as sailors, traveling merchants, seasonal workers, or migrant workers. Online work has only made this way of life more accessible, not invented it.
