We know the best cities in Asia to live out your digital nomad dreams. Bangkok and Phnom Penh came out tops in a study by Printful thanks to their low cost of living, fast Internet speeds, and availability of affordable co-working spaces. While these factors are crucial, for female digital nomads, another consideration might just trump all else – and that's personal safety.
After all, what's great nightlife or culture to a female traveller is she can't feel comfortable walking alone down the street? That's where indexes like Holidu's come in useful. The holiday rental platform referenced Nomads.com's list of top 200 cities for digital nomads and analysed each destination across factors like safety of walking alone as a female, friendliness to females, and its legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace – all to understand how safe and welcoming each city is for female digital nomads.
We're proud to say that the safest city in the world for digital nomads is right here in Asia – it's Taipei! The Taiwanese capital ranked first place for many factors, such as friendliness to foreigners, perceived safety for females, and women's rights legislation. Holidu also notes its safe and reliable public transport system, which travellers feel safe using even late at night.
It's followed closely by Chiang Rai, officially the second-safest city in the world for female digital nomads. It's often overlooked for its sister, Chiang Mai, but female digital nomads might want to give this destination in northern Thailand a chance if safety is a top concern. It ranked third in the entire study for "safety when walking alone as a female". It also has a higher-than-average ratio of female to male digital nomads, suggesting that female remote workers are likely to find a like-minded community of peers here.
Bangkok, the best city for remote working in the Printful study, ranks ninth-safest in Asia and 31st worldwide for female digital nomads. That's not a bad showing by any means, but it could do better on the safety score – it marked only 79.44 on that factor compared to Chiang Rai's 93.18.
Interestingly, Singapore – widely considered one of the safest cities in Asia, if not the world – ranks only 11th in Asia and 50th worldwide. Digging into the results, it seems that Singaporeans are not so friendly to foreigners (scoring a bland "Okay" rather than a "Great" or "Good"). That was enough to outweigh a healthy safety score of 80.75, which perhaps suggests that some warmth goes a long way.
Top 10 safest cities in Asia for female digital nomads:
- Taipei, Taiwan (#1)
- Chiang Rai, Thailand (#2)
- Penang, Malaysia (#5)
- Kaohsiung, Taiwan (#7)
- Ubud, Indonesia (#10)
- Nanjing, China (#17)
- Seoul, South Korea (#22)
- Chiang Mai, Thailand (#26)
- Bangkok, Thailand (#31)
- Daejeon, South Korea (#44)
Looking to work remotely beyond Asia? Check out our coverage of the world's safest cities for female digital nomads.
Plus? These are the best cities in Asia to live out your digital nomad dreams.
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