Five years after lockdowns in 2020 shunted desk workers into home offices, remote work has settled into a durable pattern. A survey of 16,000 university graduates in 40 countries by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University found that the average respondent worked 1.3 days a week at home in late 2024 and early 2025, roughly unchanged from 2023.
The Anglosphere works from home most. A college-educated Canadian averages 1.9 days a week at home, followed by Britons at 1.8 and Americans at 1.6. French and Danish workers spend around one day a week at home. South Koreans are least enthusiastic, averaging half a day out of the office.
The strongest predictor of a country's embrace of remote work is how individualistic or collectivist its society is, as measured by an index developed by Geert Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist. Adopting the practice involves bosses trusting workers and allowing them a degree of autonomy; executives in more individualistic societies appear more comfortable loosening the leash.
Longer commutes are less burdensome when endured three days a week rather than five, so people have moved farther from city centres to take advantage of lower property prices. Home prices in the centre of America's 20 largest cities have risen by 13% on average since 2019, well below the 30–50% growth in suburbs and farther out.
Office-to-residential conversions are happening at a record pace, especially in the costliest markets, though rearranging floorplans, plumbing, ventilation and more can cost $250–650 per square foot, according to CBRE.
Evidence on productivity is mixed. Mid-week golf has boomed, according to research by Bloom and Alex Finan of Stanford using GPS tracking. Yet America, the largest enthusiastic work-from-home economy, has seen strong productivity growth in recent years.
Women with children are appreciably more enthusiastic about remote working than those without, suggesting it makes parenting more compatible with professional life. The effect is smaller and reversed for men. East Asian countries where fertility has fallen most steeply also tend to be the most sceptical about remote work.
Research by CultureX, a firm run by Don and Charlie Sull, combined with the Flex Index database of remote-work policies (published by Work Forward, an advisory firm), suggests that companies which insist on staff being in the office five days a week score better on "agility"—the ability to anticipate and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace. But on most other measures, including supportiveness, quality of leadership, toxicity, candour and work-life balance, firms with strict office mandates scored worse than more flexible ones. Mark Ma of the University of Pittsburgh found that firms which insisted on returning to the office after the pandemic saw job satisfaction fall and staff turnover rise, with no improvement in firm performance.
According to the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, a research project, Americans spent 27% of their working days at home in July 2025, a figure that has remained pretty constant over the past year.
Americans do not appear to be making the most of time saved on commuting. Socialising and volunteering are both less common than in 2019, while time spent "relaxing" and playing video games has risen. The average American spends half an hour longer alone each day than before 2020.
A fifth of office space in America remains vacant, according to JLL, a consultancy. Vacancy rates in the fanciest buildings are far smaller. In 2025, for the first time since 2019, more office space filled up than emptied across the country. In some markets, such as New York City and San Francisco, offices are quickly filling up again. Smaller companies with smaller budgets are returning to older "b-class offices".
Landlords have been luring workers back with resort-style amenities. Jeff Eckert of JLL says demand for "amenity space" has grown for ten years but accelerated during the pandemic. Buildings now offer pickleball courts, gyms, rooftop bars, yoga studios, day-care centres and even golf simulators.
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